Ahmed Elomar charged with breaching Extended Supervision Order

The alleged purchase of a horse has landed the brother of slain terrorist Mohamed Elomar behind bars after being accused of breaching the conditions of his Extended Supervision Order. Ahmed Elomar is also accused of wiping his phone’s web history.

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The brother of slain Islamic State terrorist Mohamed Elomar has been charged with breaching his Extended Supervision Order after allegedly deleting internet searches about ISIS and stolen rocket launchers from his browser.

Ahmed Elomar was arrested this week after counter terrorism police searched his phone and discovered he had been researching the rise of ISIS, the fall of Syria and negotiations to recover rocket launchers stolen from the Australian Defence Force in the early 2000s.

While Elomar admitted clearing his web browsing history to hide it from his children, he denied deleting it permanently.

Police claim the act is a breach of a set of stringent ESO restrictions placed on offenders who have served their sentences but are still regarded as high risk.

Ahmed Elomar been charged with breaching his Extended Supervision Order. Picture: Britta Campion: The Australian

In Elomar’s case he has 54 conditions, including electronic monitoring and restrictions on where he can live and travel after serving three years in jail for bashing a police officer during the Hyde Park riots in 2012.

He is also accused of paying $5000 to buy a horse, breaching conditions that restrict him to spending no more than $500 at a time.

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Dressed in an orange high-vis jacket, Elomar, 36, appeared in Central Local Court on Friday, supported by his father and mother.

His solicitor Abdul Reslan argued that Elomar didn’t actually delete his web data but only cleared it.

“The phone is used not only by him but by other people. When his kids access the phone he doesn’t want the links to come up,” he said.

Elomar also spoke to his two enforcement officers about clearing his web history and they said it was OK, Mr Reslan said. However, this is rejected by police.

Elomar’s brother and ISIS fighter Mohamed Elomar.

“There was nothing sinister about these searches,” he told the court.

“The fact the police were able to grab the phone and find these items means clearly they weren’t deleted off the device.”

The searches were also “anti-ISIS” and related to a documentary about Syria, Mr Reslan said.

But the prosecutor, who did not give her name in court, said Elomar wasn’t deleting searches for “cooking recipes or fun events for the family”.

The court heard the searches were about ISIS and negotiations to recover rocket launchers that were stolen from an army base in Sydney and long thought to be in the hands of underworld figures.

“What is he ever doing looking at this material in his position? That’s what I want to know,” the magistrate said.

As for the horse, Mr Reslan said Elomar didn’t make that bank transfer. It was made by a business based in Melbourne.

Elomar’s father Mamdouh Elomar riding a horse near his Denham Court home in 2015. Picture Craig Greenhill

However, the prosecutor said there were messages about the purchase of the horse, negotiations about the price, a screen grab of the bank transfer and a photo of the accused with the caption “my new horse”.

The magistrate said Elomar was a man who “one would assume would be extremely circumspect about complying with these conditions” and she was not convinced the web searches were innocent.

Elomar was refused bail and the case was adjourned to August 30.

It is the second time Elomar, whose brother Mohamed was killed in an air strike against ISIS forces in Syria in 2016, has been charged with breaching his ESO.

Police charged him for associating with someone he was not allowed to in December last year after finding a sling shot at his home, which Elomar claimed was in his son’s toy box.

That charge will be dealt with in the District Court later this year.

Originally published as Ahmed Elomar charged with breaching Extended Supervision Order