Amer Khayat case: alleged bomb plot family’s ISIS links revealed
POLICE allege the brother of an Australian man who is accused of plotting to blow up an Etihad plane leaving Sydney ran a unit in Islamic State that organised attacks on the West.
National
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AMER Khayat’s brother ran a unit in Islamic State organising attacks on the West, according to police.
And his nephew, just released from jail in Lebanon, admitted to News Corp that he fought under the flag of the terror group.
A police document compiled as part of the case against Khayat, who is on trial in Beirut over the alleged plot to blow up an Etihad Airways flight out of Sydney last year, show a Lebanese police unit dedicated to monitoring the activities of jihadis and their families had been monitoring the Khayat family for some time.
An investigation showed Amer Khayat’s brother, Tarek Khayat, was one of the commanders of a “unit in Islamic State responsible for attacks outside Syria,’’ the documents said. Australian police believe Tarek, known to be a senior figure within Islamic State, organised for the explosive material allegedly used in the bomb to be posted to Sydney.
The family believes Tarek was killed fighting for Islamic State in Iraq, although there are media reports he has been detained by authorities there, along with Australian relative Ahmed Merhi.
A sister-in-law confirmed Tarek had “chosen the extremist path.’’
News Corp interviewed several members of the large family, who denied Amer and brothers Khaled and Mahmoud, had been involved in a plot to blow up a plane leaving Sydney Airport.
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Khaled Terk, 26, the nephew of the accused brothers, admitted he was a member of Islamic State but insisted his family were not terrorists.
“They didn’t do that,’’ he said.
“There is no bomb. Amer, he doesn’t even belong to any organisation, he’s not a believer. He is not belonging to Islamic State.
“I don’t believe they were involved in something like that in Australia.
“They are not true extremists.’’
News Corp interviewed Terk, whose mother is sister to the accused bombers, at a secret location in a Sunni-dominated area of the Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border, just after he was released from jail after serving a year on terrorism charges.
“They accused me of being a member of Islamic State. I was belonging to Islamic State and they arrested me in Tripoli,’’ he said.
“I didn’t do anything in Lebanon.
“We went to Syria to fight the regime who were killing women and children. We fight under the flag of Islamic State but we want justice.
“We are not terrorists. We hold weapons, we carry them to defend those without weapons from the Syrian regime, which is killing especially Sunni women and girls.’’
Terk said his uncle Amer, in jail in Lebanon, was innocent of the charges.
He also believed his older uncle Tarek had been killed in Iraq.
He said his family’s life had become a “misery because of the police and security forces taking members of the family and interrogating them.’’
Another of Terk’s uncles, Walid Khayat and his wife Hiyam, told News Corp they had collapsed when they heard the three brothers had been arrested.
“We are very sad he (Amer) was arrested and we believe he is innocent,’’ Walid Khayat said, wiping tears with a white handkerchief.
“He used to come for holidays all the time.
“We would stay in the same apartment and celebrate.
“At the upcoming Eid, I don’t have any brothers to celebrate with.’’
The family is a large one. More than 50 years ago, Mahmoud Khayat from the Akkar district in Lebanon married Raiefa Merhi, from the same district, and they had nine sons — Tarek, Khaled, Amer, Mahmoud, Fadi, Abdulkarim, Mohammad, Ahmad and Walid, and three daughters — Nada, Wafaa and Iman. Walid said two of those sons have since died (Ahmad and Mohammad), three of the brothers are in jail (Amer, Khaled and Mahmoud), and one is either dead or detained in Iraq (Tarek).
Walid Khayat said his brothers Khaled and Mahmoud had married two sisters from the Merhi family, who were their cousins, and the two families were close.
Hiyam Khayat acknowledged that brother-in-law Tarek had “chosen the extremist path.’’
She said this has resulted in the entire family being placed under pressure by police and the intelligence services.
“The problem since Tarek left the house is they are keeping the whole family under surveillance. His wife, they pressured her until she went to Syria,’’ she said.
Walid said he and his father both served in the military and even Khaled had briefly served with the Ninth brigade before he migrated to Australia.
“We don’t believe they have done this. They loved the state. We are against extremism. Only brother Tarek is like this,’’ he said.
“They are suffering from an injustice. After they pressured him, he gave his sons.’’
Walid was referring to the deaths of two of Tarek’s children — teenage sons Mohammad and Abdulraham — who were killed outside Raqqa after their father took them to Syria to fight for Islamic State.
Hiyam disputed the Australian police version of events and denied the brothers had possessed a bomb at Sydney airport.
“Khaled bought the meat-grinder and all of the sudden gives it to Amer?’’ she questioned.
“If they wanted to do this thing, wouldn’t they just have paid the $7 for the excess luggage?
“They had clean records in Australia. I want justice, inshallah.’’
Walid said his brothers Mahmoud and Amer were not “not that kind of people’’ and Amer used to be afraid when he heard gunfire nearby during the fighting in Tripoli.
They said Amer had a fiance in Lebanon and was staying with her when the police pounced. After his arrest they bought him to Walid and Hiyam’s flat in Tripoli, and searched them. The couple, who have three boys and a girl, remain under surveillance and say the charges have had a devastating financial impact on them.
Walid and Fadi visit Amer twice a month in prison and an unmarried sister was giving up her father’s pension to pay for his legal fees.
Walid, who works in the construction industry, has lost business, as had Abdulkarim, who now had to work as a taxi-driver because people didn’t want to employ him. Walid’s 15-year-old son had to leave school and find a job to help the family get by.