Mahmoud Khayat will be deported to Lebanon after serving his jail term in Australia
One of three brothers planning to carry out what would’ve been Australia’s worst terror attack will be kicked out of the country after having his residency visa cancelled.
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One of the brothers who plotted to bring down a plane with a bomb has had his Australian residency visa cancelled.
Mahmoud Khayat, one of three brothers involved in the attempt to blow an Etihad Airways flight out of the sky after it left Sydney airport in July 2017, will be deported to Lebanon once he has completed his decades-long jail term.
He has an Australian wife and two children.
The Herald Sun can also reveal Khayat had applied to become an Australian citizen in April 2017, just three months before he joined his brothers Khaled and Tarek in attempting to carry out Australia’s worst terrorist attack, which would have killed at least 400 people.
His citizenship application had not been completed and he was understood to have held a category of visa known as a “resident return visa” when he was arrested for plotting the attack and conspiring to commit a later chemical weapons attack.
He has been sentenced to a 36-year jail term, backdated to July 2017. The non-parole period was set at 27 years, meaning he will not be eligible for release until at least 2044.
The stripping of his visa means he will be immediately deported at the completion of his jail term.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton cancelled Khayat’s visa on January 7 under the character provisions of Section 501 of the Citizenship Act. One of these powers includes a mandatory loss of residency for non-citizens if they receive a jail term of greater than 12 months.
“The government strengthened these laws to keep Australians safe and we will be safer without this individual in our country,’’ Mr Dutton told the Herald Sun.
“Australia still faces a significant threat of terrorism and we should never be complacent.’’
In the past five years, 4900 residents have had their visas cancelled for failing character requirements. Of these, 29 people lost residency rights on national security grounds.
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Last financial year, 943 people had their visas cancelled, mainly for drug-related offences (201 cases). Another 142 people lost their visas for assault and 105 for child sexual offences. National security and organised crime accounted for fewer than five.
Mahmoud Khayat was convicted by a jury of involvement in a plot that saw Tarek Khayat, an Islamic State commander in Syria, post explosive material to Australia, which Khaled Khayat assembled in a meat-mincer.
Mahmoud and Khaled then attempted to smuggle the bomb into the luggage of another brother, Amer, who was unaware of the plot.
The plot failed when a check-in attendant at Etihad Airways turned the bag away because it was too heavy.
Mahmoud Khayat is believed to have first applied to stay in Australia in 2005 when he applied for a residency on the basis of his intent to marry, with his wife as a sponsor.
Originally published as Mahmoud Khayat will be deported to Lebanon after serving his jail term in Australia