Tamim Khaja pleads guilty to planning terrorist attack in Sydney
TAMIM Khaja stood in the dock of a courtroom which only 17 months earlier he had planned to attack as part of a murderous terrorist plot.
NSW
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A WANNABE jihadi who wanted to pursue “Islamic dominance of the country”, has pleaded guilty to plotting to carry out a terror attack targeting courts and a defence base in Sydney.
Tamim Khaja, 20, was convicted in the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta today of planning a terrorist attack in Sydney which would have resulted in the “mass murder” of innocent civilians
Khaja, who was 18 years old at the time, picked out the Parramatta courthouse complex and the Timor Army Barracks at Dundas as targets for a terrorist attack during 2016 and carried out reconnaissance of the sites in preparation for carrying out a suicidal assault.
Monday’s guilty plea represented a twist of fate for Khaja who stood in the dock of a Parramatta courtroom, which only 17 months earlier he had planned to attack as part of a murderous terrorist plot.
Khaja was arrested on May 17 last year outside Parramatta Stadium during a counter terrorism sting after allegedly tried to buy a gun off a person he thought was a criminal figure when in fact it was an undercover police officer.
In the lead up to his arrest he investigated purchasing a number of weapons to carry out an attack including trying to buy a suicide vest online as his plotting evolved.
His Barrister Gregory Scragg told the court Khaja would participate in the NSW Corrective Service deradicalisation program and required a mental health assessment prior to sentencing.
Justice Des Fagan said there would need to be compelling evidence the deradicalisation program had merit given Khaja’s extremist Islamic beliefs.
“When a plea like this is entered, the planning and preparing for effectively a mass murder attack pursuing Islamic dominance of the country, the idea a person can be rehabilitated from such views of religious zeal by a program needs some substantiation,” Justice Fagan told the court.
“He (Khaja) has committed this offence not in some moment of rage or passion or furtherance of some other crime in the normal criminal calendar but has pursued it in relation to a philosophy.
“When a person is convinced of a philosophy to point where it warrants mass murder the court is really concerned.”
What the court did not hear was that Khaja had been under surveillance by counter terrorism police for some time after he attempted to travel to Syria twice, including in February 2016 only a few weeks before his eventual arrest, and due to his association with Milad bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai.
al-Ahmadzai is a Sydney jihadist who was sentenced to 18 years for the brutal attempted murder of Michael Rooke outside a gay club in Rydalmere in 2013.
The pair both attended Epping Boys High School with where they reportedly became close friends and which The Australian reported in 2015 which came under intense scrutiny in late 2015 after The Australian reported that students at the school were being radicalised in the playground.
Then Premier Mike Baird sought an urgent briefing from police and the Department of Education about accusations pupils were holding extremist Islamic classes at during breaks in classes.
al-Ahmadzai, who has a young son and stepson, is currently serving prison terms for 2011 and 2013 ATM ram raids, and threatening to slit the throat of an ASIO officer.
During his attempted murder trial al-Ahmadzai refused to stand for the trial judge, the late Judge Gregory Farmer SC, on the basis of his religious beliefs, causing then NSW Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton to introduce new laws requiring the accused to stand for judges when appearing in court in person.
Khaja’s trial was meant to start in the Supreme Court today but his guilty plea now means he will be sentenced on in the NSW Supreme Court next February.
The offence carries a maximum term of life in prison.