Gold Coast man who fought alongside terror groups in Syria awaits sentence

A Gold Coast man who fought in Syria alongside terror groups spent his downtime posting to social media about beheading minorities and wanting to impale ‘nonbelievers’, a court has heard.

Agim Ajazi after landing at Brisbane airport following his extradition. Picture: John Gass/AAP

A “radicalised” Queenslander who fought “extremely vicious battles” in Syria alongside Islamic terror groups “for convenience” spent his downtime posting to social media about beheading minorities and wanting to impale “nonbelievers”.

Gold Coast man Agim Ajazi, 34, left Australia in July 2013 for Turkey where he established a base to travel back and forth into Syria’s brutal civil war.

From at least February 2014 Ajazi crossed the border into Syria to engage in armed battles with groups intending to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and establish a state governed by Sharia law.

The Australian-born Ajazi was extradited from Turkey to Australia in December 2019 and pleaded guilty in November to advocating terrorism, engaging in hostile activity and engaging in hostile activities in a foreign country which carries a maximum life sentence.

Commonwealth prosecutor Ben Power, KC, today told Brisbane’s Supreme Court that Ajazi served as an infantryman armed with an AK style assault rifle in battles waged against Syrian government forces or their allies.

“The battles that were fought were extremely vicious battles, where no quarter was given,’” Mr Power said.

Agim Ajazi after his extradition back to Australia. Picture: Nine News

Prisoners were taken and executed by forces Ajazi was associated with, however it was not alleged he had killed any prisoners.

Some groups that took part in the battles, such as Jabhat al-Nusra, were proscribed terrorist organisations.

However Mr Power said Ajazi was not a member of a proscribed terrorist organisation and was not fighting in those groups.

It was not alleged Ajazi, who was injured in battle, killed soldiers from the opposing side but he participated with groups that he did and he “was doing so approvingly”.

Mr Power read out social media posts made by Ajazi during his time fighting in Syria:

“That awkward moment when you say to an Alawi prisoner, you ready to get your head chopped off, and he just walks up and says yes with a big smile.”

“Just want to impale all the kaffur prisoners we have,’ he said in another post.

Kuffar is a derogatory term for those who don’t believe in Islam, the court heard.

In other posts Ajazi implored his “brothers” in the US to randomly kill Russians after their country entered the Syrian conflict on Assad’s side.

“Time for brothers in the West to walk into Russian churches and start chopping off the heads,” Ajazi posted.

His barrister Glen Rice, KC, said the court had to be cautious not to treat his client’s social media posts as the literal truth.

Born to immigrant parents who did not practise Islam strictly, Ajazi himself drank alcohol, experimented with drugs and went to nightclubs before he met a group of stricter muslims while working at a fruit shop.

Mr Rice said Ajazi became radicalised as he was exposed to extremist material online but it was not until the outbreak of war in Syria that he became ready to act.

He said the Assad regime used chemical weapons on its own people and Ajazi saw images of this.

“(He) felt it was his duty to right that wrong as he perceived it,” Mr Rice said.

“There’s no evidence nor is there any suggestion that he ever considered or supported or prepared or contemplated any act of terrorism in this country.”

Mr Rice said various anti-Assad groups, some of them terrorist organisations, fought together to strengthen opposition to Syrian government forces.

“The participation in conflict jointly … was an arrangement of convenience to strengthen the military outcome,” he said.

“No allegation is made that my client ever engaged in terrorist acts overseas although I accept he had the opportunity to do so.”

Ajazi has been in custody since his extradition to Australia and most of it has been spent in solitary confinement which Mr Rice said was extremely harsh on his client to the point he threatened self harm.

He had been well behaved on remand and psychological assessments found he no longer posed a risk of extremist behaviour or radicalising others.

“He no longer holds to the extremist views or the utility in engaging in hostile conflict as he did at that time,” he said.

Justice Sue Brown reserved her decision on sentence.