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Brawl as terror details are revealed in court

Tuesday Nov 8 2005

A vicious brawl erupted outside a Melbourne courthouse where one of nine terror suspects appeared this afternoon, after police arrested 17 people in simultaneous counter-terror raids in Sydney and Melbourne.

Five men leaving the courthouse were surrounded by cameramen and photographers as they walked away from the court at 1pm. One told a member of the media to "get out of my face", before shoving him to one side.

Can't find bedding you loveSeveral of the five men threw chairs from a nearby café at the media to prevent them from following them. A Channel Seven cameraman suffered cuts to his face and was treated.

Inside, Victorian prosecutor Richard Maidment QC told the court the nine men arrested formed a group aimed at carrying out a jihad, or holy war, to kill innocent men and women in Australia and had been planning terror crimes for more than 12 months.

In other developments:

  • BAIL was refused for seven men arrested in anti-terror raids across Sydney.
     

  • PRIME MINISTER John Howard says the swift passage of federal anti-terrorism laws played a part in the arrests of people allegedly involved in a terrorist plot.
     

  • A MAN was shot in the chest this morning after he fired on officers outside a house on Wilson Road, Green Valley in Sydney's southwest. He is in a critical condition.
     

  • CHEMICALS and materials capable of making explosives were seized during the raids, New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said.
     

  • TREASURER Peter Costello said the raids took place as a result of last week's law changes.
     

  • OSAMA Bin Laden supporter and outspoken Muslim cleric Abu Bakr was among those arrested.
     

  • FIVE of the six men arrested in Sydney are Australian citizens. Two of those five were born in Australia.
     

  • POLICE said Sydney and Melbourne were the likely targets.
     

  • VICTORIAN police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said at this stage, "the matters we're talking to [the AFP] about were not related to threats to the (March 2006) Commonwealth Games".

    • SYDNEY RAIDS

    Earlier today, More than 400 ASIO agents and federal police raided at least 15 homes in south-west Sydney at about 2.30am, arresting six men.

    "We believe ... that we've disrupted a large scale operation which, had it been allowed to go through to fruition, we certainly believe would have been catastrophic," Commissioner Moroney told the Nine Network.

    "Our investigation does not identify a specific object or item or location at this point in time," he said.

    NSW Premier Morris Iemma said the group was planning to make explosives.

    "Intelligence was received that a group was making arrangements to stockpile chemicals and other materials in order to make explosives to carry out a terrorist attack," he said.

    Police eventually arrested eight people in NSW after executing warrants in Lakemba, Belmore, Wiley Park, Greenacre, Illawong, Punchbowl, Hoxton Park, Condell Park, Ingleburn, Belfield, Bankstown and Kemps Creek.

    MELBOURNE ARRESTS

    Nine more were arrested in simultaneous raids in the Melbourne suburbs of Dallas, Hoppers Crossing, Fawkner, Preston, Haberfield, Coburg, Yarraville, Meadow Heights, Hadfield and Mount Druitt.

    AFP Deputy Commissioner John Lawler said all the men had been charged under the Criminal Code Act 1995 including acts in preparation of a terrorist act, being a member of a terrorist group, and conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.

    One man had also been charged with directing a terrorist organisation, he said.

    Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon told a press conference this morning: "The group to which the men belonged doesn't have a name ... and had no specific target in mind."

    An AFP spokesman said the arrests followed the execution of 22 search warrants across Sydney and Melbourne, where officers seized a range of material, including unidentified substances, firearms, travel documents, computers and backpacks.

    The raids were the culmination of a 16-month operation and the suspects in Melbourne and Sydney were alleged to be working together, police said.