Shakeela Shahid’s testing time at hands of cricket star’s brother
The young woman at the centre of a fake terror hit made up by cricket star Usman Khawaja’s brother to frame a love rival has revealed he then used the stress of the police investigation to get close to her.
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The young woman at the centre of a fake terror hit made up by cricket star Usman Khawaja’s brother to frame a love rival has revealed he then used the stress of the police investigation to get close to her.
In an exclusive interview with The Saturday Telegraph, University of NSW IT consultant Shakeela Shahid said she and Arsalan “Alan” Khawaja emotionally bonded in the belief a colleague, Sri Lankan PhD student Mohamed Kamer Nilar Nizamdeen, was innocent and could not have masterminded the Islamic State-inspired plot for which he was arrested. What she didn’t know was that Khawaja was behind it all.
As news broke that Mr Nizamdeen’s notebook contained plans to kill then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and senior politicians and attack landmarks, Ms Shahid and Khawaja, who both worked in the same IT office, were summoned for questioning by NSW counter-terrorist police and ASIO.
“Alan had handed in the notebook to security at university. He found it in Nizamdeen’s drawer in his desk. I was being questioned because I worked in the same office, I thought ... now realise I was part of this triangle plot,” she said, speaking publicly for the first time.
“We were mates going through questioning together. We became close. He told me Nizamdeen had been framed and I believed him.
“I felt revolted when I realised I was made an object and put in a position where my voice wasn’t heard.”
Police charged Mr Nizamdeen after finding the notebook in August 2018. He spent four weeks in Goulburn jail before he was released when a handwriting expert said the writing in the notebook was probably not his.
Khawaja, 39, the older brother of Australian cricketer Usman, was arrested weeks later. Police believe he was motivated by jealousy of Mr Nizamdeen’s friendship with Ms Shahid.
He is now in jail awaiting sentencing after confessing to trying to frame his colleague following a jealous dispute with him in August 2018.
He has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and dishonestly influencing a public official.
Eighteen months on, Ms Shahid struggles to fathom how she unwittingly became the focus of a plot and the target of five months of aggressive questioning.
“I was very confused. I used to be close to Nizamdeen. We never dated, yet ASIO wanted to know our previous history, from the day we met to every single meeting we had,” she said.
“One police officer asked, ‘Do you know what it’s like to go to f....ing jail?’
“One morning, an ASIO officer parked in a white car outside my family’s home ran after me in the street yelling my name as I walked to the station to work.
“I was done by then, the taunting, the following, even around the university campus; middle-aged officers in polo shirts and glasses sneaking around trying to blend in with the students. We joked how much they stuck out.”
Ms Shahid said she still suffers flashbacks of being questioned by police.
“The questioning ramped up when Alan was arrested, officers told me countless times, ‘your career is on the line if you don’t fully co-operate’,” she said.
“Do you know how frightening it is at my age to think I’d have no future?
“I still didn’t know then what was going on, they kept saying ‘tell me everything, do the right thing’.
“It was scary, my privacy had gone out the window, my parents and all my friends had been questioned by police.
“They questioned my friendship with Alan, kept asking why I was meeting him for coffees on campus. I didn’t know he was involved in the case then, we were mates getting through the same questioning.
“They said I knew more than I was letting on. When Khawaja’s house was raided, one told me ‘open your eyes, he’s fooling you’.”
It was not until an unrelenting counter terrorist police officer told her in an untaped interview at Maroubra Police station, “You know, it was your mate who handed in the notebook,” that she realised she was at the centre of a love triangle.
“I left the interview room, it hit me, – I thought maybe Alan had done something wrong but the truth was he framed Nizamdeen – and me, these guys were fighting over me,” she said.
“It’s not a compliment being fought over. I suffered months of intimidation, taunts and threats. I became depressed and had my freedom taken away because of two men I’ve never had feelings for.
“I was 21, it was a unique situation, I had been off work for a week with prolonged stress.
“I know (the police) have to do a job, but they took everything out of me. They were relentless,” she said.
As Khwaja awaits sentencing, Mr Nizamdeen, the nephew of Sri Lanka’s sports and local government minister, has returned to Sri Lanka and is reportedly engaged and rebuilding his life.
Ms Shahid, now 23, is working a new job in the Sydney CBD and has undergone extensive counselling in a bid to relearn how to trust in relationships and manage the PTSD sweats and anxiety she experiences.
“I don’t hate Nizamdeen, I couldn’t sleep knowing he was in jail, and I’m disappointed, rather than angry with Alan, although that may change,” she said. “I have a lot of trust issues now but I didn’t realise how strong I could be until I went through all of this.
“The thing I’m proud of is I never cried in front of ASIO, or the police — and there were times I really wanted to.”