« Denmark: Muslim Groups Sue Over Cartoons |
| Opinion: Islam, Apostasy and the Human Right to Freedom of Conscience »
March 31, 2006
Australia: Jihad Jack Gets Five Years' Jail Sentence
We reported that on February 26 former Melbourne taxi-driver, Joseph Terrence Thomas, aka "Jihad Jack" (pictured with his mother Patsy), was found guilty of receiving money from al-Qaeda.
He was the first person to be convicted under new legislation introduced in 2002 to combat terrorism. The amount he received is Aus $5,000 or US $3,500. He was also found guilty of receiving a plane ticket from an al-Qaeda agent, Khaled bin Attash, who is thought to have been involved in the attack against USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden in 2000.
Today, the BBC announced that Judge Philip Cummins at Victoria's Supreme Court in Melbourne gave Jihad Jack a five year jail sentence. He must serve at least two years of this sentence behind bars.
Thomas could have received a 25 year sentence. His lawyer had asked for leniency in Thomas' case, arguing that his client, who has an Indonesian wife and three children, had wanted to return home to Australia, after being involved with a terror training camp in Afghanistan.
Jihad Jack has claimed that he never intended to become an operative for al-Qaeda.
He had travelled to Afghanistan in 2001, where he attended the al-Farooq training camp, where individuals were trained in military tactics, before being sent to fight "infidels". He had fought for about a week "on the front line".
Before last month's guilty verdict, he had said: "I might be naive and I might be an idealist, but I am not a dickhead who will help to hurt innocent people."
Brought up as an Anglican, he changed his name by deed-poll to "Jihad" before he left to Afghanistan in 2001.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 31, 2006 5:39 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)