Joseph Saadieh: Police in failed bid to keep alleged ISIS recruit on remand

Terror cops swooped on Joseph Saadieh after alleging his radical views had been “escalating” to the point they claim he had a recipe for making bombs. However, a court has now released him on bail.

An alleged Aussie member of ISIS will be freed from a correctional centre on bail despite police fears his allegiance to the terror organisation was escalating after he allegedly admitted he had “huge plans for allah’s sake”.

Commonwealth prosecutors on Monday lost a last ditch Supreme Court bid to detain Joseph Saadieh, a young man from Sydney’s west who was being watched by police for three years before they arrested him in June.

Police allege Saadieh is an “international member” of the terror group and days after he was granted bail this month they unearthed new evidence in a bid to keep him behind bars on remand.

They say more than 1600 new messages show he lived a “double life” as a moderate Muslim in public while harbouring extreme views behind closed doors.

Saadieh, 24.

The court was told chats to a woman known only as “Elise New” from the United Kingdom show Saadieh telling her he had “huge plans … for allah’s sake” as well as suggesting a friend remove her Telegram details from her public Instagram page “before she gets arrested”.

Saadieh, the court was told, was to marry “Elise New” before the online relationship came to an end this year.

The court heard evidence was on top of a trove of screenshots from Telegram police obtained from Saadieh’s devices including bomb making instructions allegedly found on a USB and several religious texts they claim are tied to Islamic extremism.

Saadieh, the court heard, is a close associate of several alleged terrorists currently behind bars at Goulburn Supermax as well as Moudasser Taleb, who has been convicted of attempting to fight in Syria.

The AFP have been monitoring Saadieh for three years and now allege he is a member of ISIS.

His conversations with Taleb from this year reportedly heard the pair talking at a restaurant in March about their phones being “heavily tapped”, the court heard.

Taleb was charged in April with possessing a firearm after a raid at his home.

Saadieh, police allege, had been accessing Islamic State-linked social media accounts, propaganda and admitted he pleaded allegiance to the group in conversations with a friend in 2018.

Key to their case are several covert recordings of Saadieh, including one of him in his car this year where he allegedly yells “hellfire to you all” while driving past Rookwood Cemetery’s Jewish and Christian sections and holocaust memorial.

The 24-year-old’s lawyers argue the AFP is misinterpreting the way Saadieh practices Islam and several messages alleged to show his links to ISIS also have other meanings.

An Instagram account police claim is run by Joseph Saadieh.

They also claim public posts on his social media account depict him as the exact opposite of a radicalised Muslim.

An expert had told the court in some instances the phrases allegedly used by Saadieh were not exclusively tied to the terror organisation.

Saadieh was charged with being a member of a terror group in June after police closely monitoring his movements since 2018 alleged his behaviour was “escalating”.

The AFP had divulged resourcing issues at the national law enforcement agency meant they could not keep up with electronically monitoring Saadieh while on bail.

The three Justices of the Criminal Court of Appeal rejected the application to keep Saadieh detained at Goulburn Supermax, agreeing that AFP’s assertion he would commit a terror attack was “relatively low”.

Saadieh can now be released on bail under strict conditions.

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