Cricket star Usman Khawaja’s brother Arsalan has bail revoked
The brother of Australian cricket star Usman Khawaja has had his $50,000 bail revoked after being charged with attempting to influence a witness after he allegedly framed a university student with a fake terror hit list.
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The brother of Australian cricket star Usman Khawaja, who is accused of framing a university colleague with a fake terror hit list, allegedly tried to interfere with a female witness on Boxing Day.
UNSW employee Arsalan Tariq Khawaja will remain behind bars for breaching bail after he allegedly reached out to the woman through her brother between 7.30pm and 8.30pm on December 26 at Chatswood.
The 39-year-old IT worker, who made $170,000 last financial year and lives with his parents, tried to persuade “Witness A” to give false evidence, police say.
The woman is one of 40 people, many of whom work in the university’s IT department, who may be called on by the prosecution to give evidence.
Khawaja was arrested at his home in Westmead on Thursday by investigators from the Australian Federal Police, national spy agency ASIO and the NSW Crime Commission.
Khawaja breached the $50,000 bail he was placed on in December when he was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and forgery.
Counter terror police have now slapped him with an additional charge of influence witness in judicial proceedings.
He was taken back into custody overnight and was not required to appear before Parramatta Bail Court when his bail was revoked on Friday.
“I’m satisfied on the material before me that there has been a breach,” Magistrate John Favretto said.
“In those circumstances, bail is revoked.”
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Khawaja was accused of framing UNSW IT worker Mohamed Kamer Nilar Nizamdeen with a bogus terror plot targeting then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, former foreign minister Julie Bishop and landmarks including the Opera House.
Police will allege that he wrote the bloody atrocities in a notebook belonging to Nizamdeen and then tipped off university security guards.
It will be alleged Khawaja saw his 26-year-old colleague as a love rival for the affections of a 21-year-old woman and was jealous of his success and popularity at the university.
“He has shown a willingness to deceive authorities in furtherance of his personal desires,” police alleged at the time of his arrest, according to court documents.
“His actions resulted in the arrest and subsequent detention of an innocent party.”
Mr Nizamdeen, a Sri Lankan national, was charged with planning a terrorist attack before charges were sensationally dropped in October.
The star commerce graduate spent four weeks locked up in jail and has vowed to sue the state for compensation, calling the police investigation “immature, embarrassing and biased”.
When police initially charged Khawaja and denied him bail on December 4, detectives relied on “forensic document examination, telephone intercepts, materials located during searches, digital forensic material and accounts from independent witnesses”.
“The case is primarily circumstantial but it is bolstered by the forensic document examination in the form of handwriting examination,” court documents show.
That same day Khawaja was granted bail when his father offered up a $50,000 surety. The surety was not raised in court and no order was made, leaving it unclear whether the cash was forfeited.
Magistrate Tim Keady banned Khawaja from contacting any witnesses or employees of the university’s IT department and from going within 100 metres of the Kensington campus.
“There are a significant number of names of people who may be called as witnesses,” he said at the time.
It comes as his brother Usman plays for Australia in day three of the Boxing Day test match against India in Melbourne.
Arsalan Khawaja will appear at Parramatta Local Court via video link on February 12.
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