Melbourne terror plot raids: Police allege CBD suicide bomb plans
UPDATE: POLICE have returned to a house in Melbourne’s north, as a fourth alleged suicide bomber was remanded over a foiled terror attack in Melbourne on Christmas Day.
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UPDATE: POLICE returned to a property in Melbourne’s north where terror raids were carried out on Friday morning.
Two police cars blocked off a section of Blackwood Crescent, Campbellfield, due to a police operation.
In a statement released to the Herald Sun, Victoria Police said: “As this relates to an ongoing investigation, it is not appropriate to comment further.
“Safety of the community and our members is paramount and more information will be released when it is safe to do so.”
The Herald Sun also saw two women dressed in burkas on the property, as Australian Federal Police investigators seized several items.
A neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “My girlfriend doesn’t feel safe, she wants to move and I don’t blame her.”
The neighbour said the police had been at the house all morning.
AFP investigators and police left the scene just before 3pm.
Shortly after, a Herald Sun reporter and photographer were threatened and had their car window smashed by a car load of angry men.
The reporter and photographer were not injured.
The investigation is ongoing.
Earlier, a fourth alleged suicide bomber was remanded in custody following terror raids across Melbourne on Friday.
Ibrahim Abbas, 22, appeared at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday morning and was charged in relation to planning a terrorist attack.
Abbas appeared with a shaven head and a mid-length beard and wearing a grey jumper and sporting a black swollen eye.
His legal aid defence lawyer Therese Wattis said Abbas had sustained possible head injuries and needed to see a doctor.
Ms Wattirs said Abbas requested a Koran and prayer mat but Magistrate Steven Raeleigh said: “I’ll make a note of that but it’s up to prison authorities.”
Abbas did not apply for bail and will reappear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on April 28, 2017.
POLICE ALLEGE CBD SUICIDE BOMB PLOT
WOULD-be suicide bombers allegedly planned to blow up the heart of Melbourne on Christmas Day in a terror attack aimed at unleashing destruction and causing mass casualties.
Flinders St station, Federation Square and St Paul’s Cathedral were allegedly major targets of an Islamic State-inspired plot. It’s claimed common household goods were stockpiled at the Meadow Heights home of the group’s suspected ringleader to fuel the deadly blast.
About 400 heavily armed police late on Thursday stormed properties across Melbourne’s north and west to avert what authorities branded an immediate terror threat.
Three men aged in their 20s on Friday faced court on Commonwealth terror charges.
A fourth was charged on Friday night. Two other men and a woman were questioned and released.
The charges make it an offence to do any act in preparation or planning for a terrorist act. If found guilty they could face life in prison.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton says there is evidence to suggest there were plans for an “explosive act”, which had the power to injure or kill a “substantial” number of people.
“Certainly these are self-radicalised, we believe, but inspired by IS and IS propaganda,” he said.
Police have been put on high alert for reprisal attacks but stressed Victorians should go about their business.
Security will be ramped up at major events including tonight’s Carols by Candlelight and the Boxing Day Test.
The Herald Sun has been told the accused plotters discussed martyrdom, suggesting they may have been willing to die in the foiled attack.
Authorities are pursuing a suicide bombing as a line of inquiry.
A video branding Christmas a “riotous occasion” for Christians to get drunk and party was among material posted on social media accounts of one of the arrested.
It brands Santa Claus an “evil demon of the north”.
Police revealed the accused had come to their attention some time ago but the terror threat accelerated in the past fortnight. They will allege the group intended to conduct a “multi-mode” attack and were so intent on causing havoc they had already conducted a reconnaissance mission in the Flinders St station precinct.
Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police and ASIO officers swung into action on Thursday night — raiding homes in Meadow Heights, Dallas, Campbellfield, Flemington and Gladstone Park.
Investigators late on Friday remained at the Meadow Heights home of the accused plotters’ suspected ringleader 24-year-old Ahmed Mohamed. The Egyptian-born man is believed to have lived in a bungalow joined to the main house in Manna Ct.
A 20-year-old woman believed to hold “concerning views” and a 26-year-old man were also arrested but released.
Residents at the home raided in Campbellfield — bearing a smashed window where police threw a smoke bomb — told the Herald Sun they were “not interested” when approached.
A neighbour said he first heard of the raid, in which an unknown 22-year-old man was arrested, when his wife screamed that someone was in their backyard. “I went out and saw this big guy with a machine gun and he just looked at me and said, ‘go back inside’,” the father said.
“He then propped his gun on the edge of the fence and pointed it towards their house.
“Then there was a loud bang. They threw a smoke bomb through their front window. There was a lot of commotion. It was really scary.
“We’re from Syria and my wife was really shaken up about it as we came here to live a safe life. My kids were scared and crying.”
The family living at the targeted Blackwood Crescent house had only been there about 12 months and had always kept to themselves, residents said.
The Herald Sun also visited a Flemington townhouse where residents told how armed police came in “like stealth” to arrest 21-year-old Hamza Abbas, who it’s understood lives with his mother at the Woodcock Close housing commission property.
A fourth man, 21-year-old Zak Dabboussi, was arrested at Gladstone Park where elder brother Ahmed said more than two dozen armed police stormed the Kingsmere Close home. Mr Dabboussi was later released without charge.
A fifth man, 26-year-old Abdullah Chaarani, was arrested in Millewa Crescent in Dallas.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the alleged plot was not an act of religious observance or faith, it was an “act of evil”.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: “This is one of the most substantial terrorist plots that has been disrupted over the last several years.”
Commissioner Ashton said all evidence pointed to a Christmas Day attack.
“They have been people we have been concerned about but over the past fortnight — that has accelerated to where we’ve had to conduct a criminal investigation relating to the formation of what we believe is a terrorist plot,’’ Mr Ashton said.
“We believe we have neutralised this threat.”
Mr Mohamed, Mr Abbas and Mr Chaarani faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court charged with planning a terrorist act. They did not apply for bail and were remanded to reappear on April 28.
A woman dressed in a niqab shoved a Herald Sun photographer as emotions ran high outside the court.
A 22-year-old man was on Friday night charged in an out-of sessions court hearing with committing acts in preparation or planning for a terrorist act.
He was remanded to face the Melbourne Magistrates Court this morning.
MAYHEM OUTSIDE COURT
DRESSED all in black, the two women in niqabs walked through teams of Protective Services Officers guarding Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.
They were there to support their men, who are accused of planning a Christmas massacre. In hyper-vigilant scenes before the men arrived in the dock, Lonsdale St was cordoned off to get the alleged terror plotters to the cells that sit below the court.
And after the courtroom scenes were over, there was an outburst of anger by supporters as photographers were jostled and swatted at by the women who watched the latest accused men remanded in jail until April. But inside courtroom one, things were calm.
There were tears for Ahmed Mohamed, 24, who faces the Commonwealth charge of planning a terrorist attack. The woman’s face was covered, but her sobs were audible.
Her apparent husband was the final hearing of the first three young men all accused of plotting a terror attack.
His co-accused, Abdullah Chaarani and Hamza Abbas, were both remanded in jail in very similar court hearings presided over by straight-talking magistrate Tim Bourke.
It will be late April before they return unless they want to head to the Supreme Court to try to get bail. But on Friday, none of them applied. It would not have been entertained.
Mr Abbas, through his lawyer, Jessie Smith, requested a nurse for soft-tissue injuries caused during his arrest.
Mr Mohamed had a pre-existing back ailment he needed medicated.
Two arrested men and a woman have been released. Another faced an out-of-sessions hearing on Friday night.
Protected by older women, possibly their mothers, the Muslim women kept eye contact with the two men that were escorted into the dock.
The young terror accused men did not react.
The most animated was Mr Mohamed.
At the end of his court hearing he looked towards his supporters and motioned with his hands. They understood.
He may have wanted his copy of the Koran. Then again, he may have just wanted a notepad to write in.
Outside court, however, there was a reaction.
As photographers jostled for a clear picture, one of the women batted away the lensmen by swiping at them.
Earlier in the day there were frantic phone calls as these alleged terrorists tried desperately to grasp the gravity of the situation.
Their Aussie accents were unmistakeable. Their alleged intentions unimaginable.
— with REBEKAH CAVANAGH, WES HOSKING AND MARK BUTTLER
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