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December 16, 2005
Australia: Muslim Cleric Discussed Jihad and Killing Prime Minister
At a bail hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court today, a prosecutor said that Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika (pictured) had discussed jihad with Abdullah Merhi, in conversations intercepted and recorded by police, states Reuters.
Prosecutor Nick Robinson said that Mehri had asked "For example if John Howard [the prime minister] kills innocent Muslim families do we...do we have to kill him and his family...his people like at the football?"
The Algerian cleric had responded: "If they kill our kids we will kill little kids," and when Mehri said "innocent ones", Benbrika had said "innocent ones."
Australian radio said that the prosecutor said they had also discussed the killing of police, and families at football matches, in retaliation for deaths of Muslim families.
The men were arrested in the early hours of November 8, in raids which took place in Melbourne and Sydney and which netted 18 men, including Benbrika, the spiritual leader of the group, who are accused of plotting terrorist offences.
We reported at the time that the police had 240 hours of recorded conversations which they had intercepted since July 2004, including speech in which Abdullah Mehri asked permission to become a martyr.
Benbrika, who had been fighting deportation orders, had in August publicly stated that he advised jihad against troops and announced: "My religion doesn't tolerate other religion....Jihad is part of my religion."
On Friday November 11 the court was told that eight of the suspects seemed to be attempting to create an attack upon the Lucas Heights experimental nuclear reactor in the outskirts of Sydney. Six of the suspects went on "hunting and camping trips" to places described by police as jihadist training camps, between March and April 2005.
The bail hearing is still continuing.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 16, 2005 6:49 AM
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