A sliding doors moment led to accused Islamic State terrorist and recruiter Neil Prakash’s downward spiral into the world of extreme religious ideology after he attended a controversial mosque in Melbourne’s south-east.
Details of Prakash’s conversion to Islam emerged during the first day of a committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, which will determine whether there is enough evidence to send the 33-year-old to trial on terrorism-related charges.
Neil Prakash is facing terrorism-related charges.
Prakash, who had previously refused to attend court on multiple occasions since his extradition to Australia in 2022, on Monday appeared via video link from custody and spoke briefly to confirm he could see and hear the proceedings.
Dressed in a white T-shirt and sporting an unkempt beard and skull cap, Prakash had to be whisked away from the cell by a prison guard just minutes later. A defence lawyer reported the accused man felt light-headed and unwell. Prakash was excused by the magistrate from attending the hearing and did not return to face the video link.
The court heard evidence from two of Prakash’s former acquaintances, who described how he first became enticed by the extreme views promoted at the controversial Al-Furqan Islamic Centre in Springvale South in 2012.
Joseph Almatrah and Ibrahim Halligan separately told the court Prakash had initially planned to announce his conversion to Islam at a mosque in Dandenong, but car-related delays meant the trio missed the Friday service and ended up visiting the radical Al-Furqan instead.
The experience turned out to be a turning point for Prakash, the court heard, as he was exposed to the ideology of radical religious preacher Harun Mehicevic and later decided to travel to Syria.
Almatrah said that on the day Prakash converted, Mehicevic delivered an incendiary sermon in which he described supporters of the Syrian government as enemies, spies and snakes.
“I am from a government loyalist family who are in the army [in Syria]. I was sitting in the sermon and it was very inflammatory,” Almatrah told the court.
“We are spies, we are snakes … pretty much advocating some very not nice things. Then saying that he knew that there were spies in the audience. So instantly I thought I would be looked at because people knew where I was from and my family.”
Neil Prakash (left) in a jihadist propaganda video in about 2015.Credit: Twitter
Almatrah said Mehicevic’s rhetoric made him uncomfortable, but it appeared to entice young Prakash, who had previously identified as Buddhist and was known in local circles as Little Chris.
Halligan, a close friend of Prakash who was also present on the day Prakash converted, told the court Al-Furqan members persistently contacted Prakash after his initial visit to invite him to events.
He said he warned Prakash about the group. “These guys don’t seem good,” he said he told his friend.
At first, Prakash agreed but Halligan said the group “kept persisting with him” and in mid-2013, within a year of being converted, Prakash allegedly left Melbourne to travel to Syria to join Islamic State.
The court also heard evidence from Paul Maley, a former national security correspondent at The Australian, who communicated via Twitter and encrypted mobile apps with accounts suspected of being controlled by Prakash between February and September 2015.
Maley, who initially made a statement to the police in 2015, told the court he had received threats from Prakash and other Islamic State sympathisers for his coverage of the war in Syria and Australians travelling to the Middle East to join the conflict.
The threats included a message allegedly sent by Prakash to a freelance journalist posing as a jihadi in which he, Prakash, floated the idea of getting an “inside guy” to kidnap and behead Maley.
Prakash faces six terrorism charges over his alleged involvement with Islamic State in 2014 and is accused of travelling to Syria and undertaking hostile acts in 2016.
Two of the charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment: engaging in a hostile activity in a foreign state and engaging in a hostile activity in a foreign country.
He is also charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation, advocating terrorism, providing support to a terrorist organisation, and entering or remaining in a declared area.
The committal hearing continues.
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