Khaled Khayat found guilty over Etihad plane bomb plot

A Sydney brother has been found guilty of plotting to blow up an Etihad flight with a bomb hidden inside a meat mincer and also separately gas people to death.

A Sydney brother has been found guilty of plotting to blow up an Etihad flight with a bomb hidden inside a meat mincer and also separately gas people to death.

After less than three days of deliberating the jury of nine women and three men returned the guilty verdict against Lakemba man Khaled Khayat, 51, at the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday.

They will continue to deliberate for his younger brother Mahmoud, 34, who has denied having any knowledge of the terror attack plans.

Khaled Khayat has been found guilty over a plot to blow up an Etihad plane.

MORE NEWS:

Killer cop faces 25 years after Justine Damond verdict

Packer snapped in LA with tube strapped to stomach

Face-tattooed ‘Butch’ in court over John Ibrahim mansion video

During the six-week trial Crown Prosecutor Lincoln Crowley QC said the bomb was hidden in a meat grinder and put in the luggage of a passenger catching the Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi on July 15, 2017.

The court heard that plan had to be aborted at Sydney International Airport check-in because the luggage was too heavy.

Khaled later took the bomb — which had been sent to him from Turkey - and timer back to his Lakemba garage.

“The devices, the timer and the bomb, were found there by police two weeks later,” Mr Crowley said.

He also said that Khaled planned to let off lethal poisonous gas in a public confined space.

A court sketch of the Khayat brothers Mahmoud (left) and Khaled. Artwork: Vincent De Gouw

The court heard he followed instructions via encrypted app Telegram on how to make it using ingredients at his home.

Khaled told the court he was told to test whether it worked on a rabbit or mouse in a room.

When police arrested him on July 29, 2017, they found a piece of paper with words and numbers written in Arabic in his wallet.

Mr Crowley said it contained the correct equations and mathematical figures to produce lethal amounts of the poisonous gas.

In police interview tapes played during the trial, Khaled spoke of walking into the airport with the bomb.

He said when he saw children at the airport he thought “Don’t do it, don’t be stupid, don’t do it” and removed the bomb from the baggage.

During police interviews Khaled, who said he was acting alone in Australia, also told officers: “My brain say yes, my heart say no” and “I stopped it myself because I thought it’s not right”.

Khaled Khayat claimed he was trying to stop the bomb plot.

Khaled’s barrister Richard Pontello told the jury that contrary to what his client told police he never took the bomb to the airport and he was actually trying to prevent a terrorist attack from occurring.

He said that Khaled pretended to go along with the plans because he feared someone else would be asked to do something and the bomb, timer and batteries would not have actually fit in the meat mincer.

The court heard that Khaled would send photos via Telegram to show he had completed instructions.

“Everything I have to do I have to send photos,” Khaled said when giving evidence during the trial.

“Every step I do it, I send them photo. I have to buy it (the timer for the bomb) to show him. I’m not tricking him.”

But ultimately the jury didn’t believe his version of events, returning the guilty verdict.

Khaled now faces life behind bars for conspiring to do acts in preparation of a terrorist act and will be sentenced on July 26.

Originally published as Khaled Khayat found guilty over Etihad plane bomb plot