Belal Saadallah Khazaal challenges parole refusal

The religious leader of high risk terrorism offenders in Australia’s most notorious jail has repeatedly been refused parole following accusations he’s recruiting fellow inmates to violent jihad.

The religious leader of high risk terrorism offenders in Australia’s most notorious jail has repeatedly been refused parole following accusations he’s recruiting fellow inmates to violent jihad.

Former Qantas cabin cleaner Belal Saadallah Khazaal became eligible for parole in mid 2017 after serving his minimum nine-year prison term for producing a do-it-yourself terror manual, and says the government hasn’t given any meaningful reason for knocking back his release requests.

Belal Saadallah Khazaal became eligible for parole in 2017 after serving his minimum nine-year prison term for producing a do-it-yourself terror manual

The Australian attorney-general today agreed to set aside a July decision to deny the 48-year-old freedom following a Federal Court challenge.

But any reconsideration has been automatically overridden by a subsequent September parole refusal, which Khazaal’s lawyer labelled “equally deficient”.

“We can all go home — apart from Mr Khazaal — and perhaps fight again another day,” Justice Michael Wigney said.

A recent psychometric test assessed Khazaal as being medium to high risk of violent extremism, the court heard.

Corrective Services and the AFP counter terrorism team also flagged concern about Khazaal influencing other prisoners to radicalise, which contributed to Christian Porter’s July decision to deny his release.

Khazaal was a former Qantas cabin cleaner

Khazaal’s lawyer says his client has been kept in the dark about any of the details supposedly backing up the claims and is demanding several reports be handed over in full.

Barrister Ed Anderson argued his client was denied procedural fairness when “somewhat nebulous” allegations taken into account by the attorney-general were not raised with him.

The court heard Khazaal is regarded as a powerful scholar inside Goulburn’s Supermax’s High Risk Management Centre and poses an unacceptable risk to national security amid fears he could disseminate dangerous ideology once in the community or convince others to carry out attacks.

Mr Anderson said there could be a “perfectly innocent” misunderstanding as Khazaal leads prayers behind bars but denies he supports al-Qaeda.

“He makes no bones about that fact that he’s a devout Muslim and it’s a fairly conservative view of Islam,” the lawyer said.

Mr Anderson noted the attorney-general also referenced Khazaal’s association with known extremists as a factor yet provided no detail about who they were, adding they could be the cell neighbours he is forced to live with.

Khazaal is regarded as a powerful scholar inside Goulburn’s Supermax’s High Risk Management Centre.

Shaking his head, Justice Wigney described the “wonderful catch 22” that prisoners housed in that block can’t do rehabilitation programs because of their maximum security classification, which affects parole decisions.

The government’s barrister Trent Glover said Khazaal’s camp had already been given a vast swathe of reports following a Freedom of Information request but Mr Anderson said the majority of the text in those documents had been blacked out giving them “virtually nothing”.

Khazaal was in 2008 found guilty in the NSW Supreme Court of compiling the 110-page book, titled Provisions Of The Rules of Jihad, as a “practical guide to achieving martyrdom”.

The former editor of Call to Islam magazine was jailed for a maximum 12 years and in 2011 was ­released on bail after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal ­allowed a conviction challenge and ordered a retrial.

But he was returned to custody in 2012 when the High Court reinstated his original conviction.

Originally published as Belal Saadallah Khazaal challenges parole refusal