Cash-strapped IS fighter Mohammad Ali Baryalei pleaded with friend for money from Australia

DOWN and out in war-torn Iraq, Australian Islamic State fighter Mohammad Ali Baryalei phoned home seeking cash.

Omarjan Azari as he appeared in court this week. Illustration: Bernd Heinrich

• IS recruiter allegedly told Azari: ‘Just pick any random unbeliever’

DOWN and out in war-torn Iraq, Australian Islamic State fighter Mohammad Ali Baryalei phoned home seeking cash.

“Me bro, I’m strapped,” the senior Islamic State fighter told his contact Omarjan Azari during a phone conversation intercepted by police on July 28, 2014.

“I need — I need it man, you know what I mean? I’ve got money tied up here and there. I’m waiting.”

But Azari would never send Bayalei the cash.

A series of phone calls between the pair played to the jury at Azari’s Supreme Court trial today revealed that police surveillance of suspected Islamic State sympathisers was so intense Azari could not find anyone willing to try to transfer the money.

A last ditch attempt by Azari to recruit a 17-year-old to send US$9000 to Baryalei allegedly ended in disaster when the boy’s mum found the money in his cargo pants and his father confiscated it.

Azari, 24, is on trial for allegedly plotting a terrorism attack in Australia during one of the many phone conversations he had with Baryalei from his Guildford home, in Western Sydney, in 2014.

It is alleged the pair plotted recruiting a jahil — Arabic for a minor or ignorant person — to carry out terror killings in Sydney which they allegedly planned to film and use for IS propaganda videos.

Azari has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to preparing to commit a terrorist act.

He has, however, pleaded guilty to attempting to finance a terrorist organisation by trying to send about US$9000 to Baryalei.

During a phone conversation on August 2, 2014 Azari told Baryalei, “things are getting a bit heated up and I’m telling you, glory be to Allah, every brother I ask, yeah, like they refuse. They didn’t want to do it.”

“The worst scenario I’ll probably just use a woman to do it,” Azari said.

Azari tells Baryalei that he can’t use the friend he recruited last time to transfer more money.

“Why doesn’t he want to do it again?” Baryalei asks.

“He’s got approached by ASIO,” Azari replies.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah after he got approached by ASIO ... nothing happened, he didn’t say nothing or anything.”

Later in the conversation Azari complained he was “getting frustrated at how much people buckle”.

“Yeah I know. That’s the case everywhere now, man,” Baryalei replied, “that is just how it is. It’s just not with you, it’s with everyone ... you call them, they hang — they hang up the phone or they pretend they did not hear.”

The Crown case is that several days later Azari recruited a 17-year-old to transfer US$9000 to Baryalei via Western Union.

The boy, however, baulked at the $600 transfer fee and took the bundle of cash home where his mother later found it in the pocket of his cargo pants.

The cash was confiscated by the boy’s father and the money was later seized by police during a raid.

The jury also heard a phone conversation between Azari, his parents and his older brother Warisjan who left Australia on May 15, 2104, to fight with Islamic State in Syria.

During the phone call his mother Gulpekal sobs while his father Alamjan asks: “Do you think what you did was good? Ah?”

Warisjan replied: “Don’t worry ... ah? Everything will be alright ... father I just wanted to know about you.”

The Crown’s case is that less than a month after this conversation and a day before the Azari family home was raided by police, a second brother, Fahimjan, also left Australia for Syria.

Australian authorities believe Baryalei is now dead. Warisjan and Fahimjan’s whereabouts are not known.

The trial continues.