Sydney man charged with terror offences
POLICE have dramatically swooped on a Sydney man they have been clandestinely watching for more than two years and charged him with planning a terrorist attack. The man’s father, pictured, insisted his son was not a terrorist.
NSW
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POLICE have dramatically swooped on a Sydney man they have been clandestinely watching for more than two years and charged him with planning a terrorist attack.
NSW joint counter-terrorism police yesterday arrested shocked Nowroz Rayed Amin, 26, at his home in Ingleburn at 9.30am and took him for questioning at Campbelltown Police Station.
He was also charged with preparing to engage in hostile activity and carrying extremist goods in his luggage while attempting to travel to Bangladesh from Sydney Airport on 7 February, 2016.
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Amin protested “I surrender, I surrender” when counterterrorist police arrested him.
Neighbour Ali Lewis, 52, a pharmacy assistant, told how she heard screams during the 13-strong police swoop.
“He was shouting ‘I surrender, l surrender’ as they wrestled him to the ground face down,” she said.
“He was in his white pyjamas and eventually officers handcuffed him and led him into a police van.”
Court documents show police allege he engaged in secret conversations about travelling to declared areas and about acquiring weapons and training in 2015.
Amin’s father, speaking behind the door of his red brick home in Ingleburn, told The Daily Telegraph: “My son is not a terrorist. I have no clues about what’s going on. The police came and took away all the papers in the house.
“My wife is crying. We don’t want to say anything but Nowroz hasn’t done anything wrong, you will see.”
Today Amin did not apply for bail and was formally refused bail by magistrate John Bailey at Parramatta Local Court.
Australian Federal Police will allege he was stopped from travelling to Bangladesh more than two years ago after border force officials at the airport found extremist ideology items in his luggage, including clothes and material on his mobile phone and electronic devices.
Court documents show he came under the microscope of AFP officials in February 2016 when he was stopped at the airport and became the focus of a covert lengthy and complex investigation.
They will also allege they found extremist ideology in his luggage and was planning to travel to Bangladesh to meet with people who held similar beliefs and planned to engage in terrorist acts outside of Australia.
A source close to the investigation said: “There was no trigger point for arrest. These counter terrorism cases often take time to gather intelligence.”
The maximum penalty for both terrorism offences is life imprisonment.
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The case has been adjourned to Parramatta Local Court for August 14.
One neighbour today told The Daily Telegraph Amin was a keen boxer but had become withdrawn in the past two years since his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“He would often shadow box in the street but I haven’t seen him do it for a few years. He became less sociable around the time his mother got sick,” the neighbour said.
“He was a nice kid when he was young, chatty, open and friendly.”