ISIS recruiter allegedly told Sydney terror accused Omarjan Azari: ‘Just pick any random unbeliever’
AN Islamic State monster ordered the execution of up to seven people every month as part of a terror plot in which Sydney children would be brainwashed and used as assassins.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AN Islamic State jihadist ordered the brutal killings of up to “seven people every month” as part of a horrifying terror plot in which Sydney children would be used as assassins.
The NSW Supreme Court heard yesterday that senior Islamic State fighter Mohammad Ali Baryalei and Sydney man Omarjan Azari discussed exploiting brainwashed kids as they did not think the youngsters would be under police surveillance.
A transcript of a phone call between the pair was read out to the jury in which Syria-based terrorist Baryalei said they needed to find someone to “terminate five, six, seven people every month” and suggested killing backpackers because it would attract worldwide media attention.
“Just pick any random unbeliever,” Baryalei told Azari, who moved to Australia from Afghanistan with his family as a child.
“Finish him, her, when finished, put the flag of the state in the background, we can make the video here and start posting it.”
Azari, 24, has pleaded not guilty to doing an act in preparation for a terrorist act by engaging in the phone conversation with Baryalei. However, he has pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to finance a terrorist organisation by trying to send around $9000 to the jihadi.
IN OTHER NEWS: DRUNK DRIVER OF MOTORISED ESKY FINED
The jury was told Azari was at a football match on the evening of September 15, 2014, when he received a call from Baryalei in Syria encouraging him to recruit “boys with heart” to commit “continuous” terrorist attacks.
He told the Sydney man to target “tourists”, “backpackers”, and French and British citizens, saying it was “an order” from his commander. “These people are unbelievers, their blood is like dog’s blood,” Baryalei said.
Baryalei told Azari IS wanted to send a clear message: “As you kill our people we will also kill your people one by one.”
Azari asked for “a couple of months” because “all the boys who have heart are under surveillance, extreme surveillance” and told Baryalei, “a jahil should do this work”.
Crown prosecutor Peter Neil, SC, said “jahil” was Arabic for an “ignorant person or a minor” and Azari suggested this because he thought a juvenile would not attract the authorities’ attention.
Mr Neil said Azari had a special phone registered under the name of “Peter Headset” which he used for Baryalei to call him “from time to time”.
He said Azari was part of a group of more than a dozen young men and teenagers who would meet at Parramatta mosque and a month before the recorded call, Azari had recruited one of the members of the group — a 17-year-old — to transfer $6000 in cash in two separate payments to Pakistan to assist travelling to Syria to fight for IS.
The court heard the boy, whose name is suppressed, was then told by Azari to send $US9000 to Baryalei.
But Mr Neil said that when the boy went to Western Union and was told there would be a transfer fee of $600, he hesitated and took the money home planning to ask Azari if that was too expensive.
The boy went home with the plastic bag of US notes in his cargo pants, which his mother later found when she went to wash the trousers.
“She gives the bag to her husband who is concerned,” Mr Neil said. “The father arranges with his daughter to hide the plastic bag of US bills in her bedroom and he spoke to (his son) about it. Basically (the boy) tells his father a cock and bull story and (the father) does not give the money back.”
The following month it was confiscated by police during a raid on the family home.
Defence barrister John Stratton, SC, said Azari never agreed during the phone call with Baryalei that he make attack plans and was in fact trying to “put off” Baryalei.
He said Azari was aware authorities were monitoring his conversation, telling Baryalei, “I’m not 100 per cent certain they are listening but I’m pretty sure they are listening.”
Mr Stratton said Azari was concerned about his two brothers who were fighting with IS and were “indirectly” under Baryalei’s control.
Three days after the phone call Azari was arrested along with several others in a co-ordinated police operation.
The trial continues.
Labor’s misinformation bill opens up a ‘Pandora’s box of powers’
Australians refusing to co-operate with “misinformation hearings” could be jailed for up to a year, the Coalition has claimed, while others slam Labor’s “big brother” bill.
Woman allegedly killed and cut up husband over secret lover
Police allege that an international love triangle was the motive behind a woman killing her husband and dismembering him with a saw before dumping him in bins across Sydney.