Counter-terror cop who helped turn radical inmate Mazen Touma around
NSW counter-terror cop Tony Long thought Mazen Touma — Australia’s first terrorism inmate to deradicalise in Supermax prison — would end up back in jail. But after completing two years of strict parole, Touma runs a successful business and has taught law enforcement a thing or two about tackling violent extremism.
NSW
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The sceptical policeman in Tony Long meant he initially doubted Mazen Touma’s ability to stay on the straight and narrow.
“If you said to me two years ago there is this guy coming out and he has done 12 years in Supermax, I’d say ‘yeah OK’,” the NSW Counter Terrorism Command Chief Inspector told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I initially probably thought after the first six months he would be back in jail and that is not based on anything other than being a policeman.”
Touma was jailed for sourcing ammunition and explosives for a terrorist cell, known as the Pendennis Nine, intent on carrying out attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
Touma, 37, is Australia’s first terrorism inmate to deradicalise in jail after undergoing a voluntary program while in Supermax prison.
More than 40 per cent of criminals reoffend within a year of leaving jail.
But two years on, Insp Long, the head of CT’s engagement and intervention unit, admits he is “quietly chuffed” by Touma’s success so far.
After completing two years of strict parole, Touma runs a successful business and has taught law enforcement a thing or two about tackling violent extremism.
Insp Long even asked Touma, now 37, if he would speak to a room full of cops at a national security conference and “tell us how it is”.
“It was a two-way street with him,” Insp Long said.
“I got to learn from him as he got to learn from me.”
In 2017, Insp Long was assigned to manage Touma’s case once he was released on parole.
For Insp Long, it wasn’t so much about around-the-clock monitoring of Touma as it was about helping restore normalcy to his life — like reopening Touma’s business account after the bank shut it down because of his terrorism convictions.
Or when Insp Long reflected on his own experience with the post traumatic stress which can come from what police experience to encourage Touma to seek help about his anxiety; a hangover from being locked up in a maximum-security prison for more than a decade.
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There were plenty of colourful discussions over coffee in Bankstown about religion and “things you wouldn’t talk to your wife about”, Insp Long joked.
They were a good match. Insp Long was the kind of old school cop you could have a yarn to and Touma was the kind of bloke who will tell it straight.
Touma was brought into the Living Safe Together program, an initiative aimed at disengaging people from violent extremism.
That might be as simple as putting someone through an education course, helping them get a driver’s licence after a decade in jail or signing a young person on the path to radicalisation up to a local sporting club.
Touma’s goals were quite simple, Insp Long explained – family, business and stability.
“He did a lot of that himself. He is pretty self motivated.”