Amer Khayat allegedly told police Etihad flight bomb was ‘set to blow up over Blue Mountains’ before retracting his claim

BOMBS which police say were intended for a packed plane flying out of Sydney were allegedly set to go off over the Blue Mountains 20 minutes after takeoff, as more chilling details about the alleged plot have been revealed.

EXCLUSIVE

BOMBS which police say were intended for a plane departing Sydney were allegedly set to go off as the packed passenger jet passed west of the Blue Mountains.

News Corp can reveal one of three brothers accused of trying to plant bombs on an Etihad Airways flight last year allegedly confessed to Lebanese police the two devices were designed to detonate 20 minutes after take off. He has since retracted his confession and says he is innocent.

In the now-retracted confession, Amer Khayat, 40, who is in jail in Lebanon, allegedly told police the devices, hidden in a meat-mincer and a Barbie doll, had been fitted with self-timers designed to detonate 20 minutes after takeoff.

Amer Khayat is currently jailed in Beirut. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

Police have not revealed whether the target was flight EY451 or EY455, but both follow a similar flight path. They can also both accommodate around 400 passengers.

Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas, who tracked the two flight paths on radar, told News Corp this would have placed the plane somewhere between Oberon and Bathurst, around 200 kilometres west of Sydney.

News Corp can reveal that Lebanese police who interrogated Amer Khayat, who was alleged to be the designated suicide bomber, claim he told them that the bombs never made it onto the plane because Etihad said his hand luggage was too heavy.

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Khaled Khayat, the brother of Amer Khayat, is in custody in Sydney accused of plotting a terrorist act.

In an exclusive interview in the grim Central Prison at Roumieh, near Beirut, Amer Khayat, 40, said “Australia is my country’’ and pleaded to be allowed to return home.

“Tell the people of Australia I am innocent,’’ Khayat said, speaking on a phone through two glass walls and two sets of prison bars in a special wing of the prison.

“I am not a terrorist.

“I am innocent and the police in Australia know I am innocent, they have said it.

“I want to go home.’’

Khayat, who has two daughters aged 11 and 15 with his ex-wife in Sydney, has been in jail since August, when Lebanese police arrested him on suspicions he was involved in the alleged plot to smuggle the two bombs onto the plane on July 15.

Khaled Khayat was arrested during terror raids across Sydney in July 2017.

Two of his brothers, Khaled Khayat, 49, and Mahmoud Khayat, 32, are in custody in Sydney accused of two counts of plotting a terrorist act, relating to the same alleged incident, and a second alleged plot to build a chemical weapon. They have pleaded not guilty and will stand trial next year.

Amer Khayat said he didn’t know anything about his brothers’ case, and couldn’t say anything about it.

News Corp can reveal Lebanese Internal Security Forces, who interrogated him after his arrest, alleged he made a detailed confession with specific details about his involvement.

However, he has since retracted his confession and told an investigating judge that he knew nothing about any specific plot to bring bombs on board the plane in the mincer and the doll.

In the documents prepared by the ISF, police say a fourth Khayat brother, Tarek, who was an Islamic State commander in Syria, was involved in the alleged plot.

While there are reports Tarek is now being held in custody in Iraq, his family believes he is dead.

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Walid Khayat at his home in Tripoli, Lebanon, cries when he talks about his brothers in prison. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

The ISF documents say Tarek had been communicating through the applications WeChat and Telegram, and it was believed no-one could monitor the communications.

The documents claim Amer Khayat said that a person had told him “why don’t you do a suicide operation’’.

The ISF claim Amer Khayat had told them he was asked by another person to do something good for God and good for the family, to make amends for his previous lifestyle which included getting divorced, drinking, taking drugs and going to nightclubs to meet women.

“He said: ‘Inshallah. I will think about it’,’’ the document claims.

“On the 2nd of July 2015 (sic) he booked a ticket on Etihad on 15 July 2017.’’

According to the documents, Amer Khayat allegedly said a woman working at the Etihad check-in counter told him he could not take the doll as hand-luggage, because it weighed 3.5kg.

The meat-mincer and doll were then allegedly taken away from the airport, and Amer Khayat boarded the flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi and on to Lebanon, travelling without incident.

Police in Australia allege high-grade military explosive was used in the devices.

Amer Khayat was arrested in Tripoli, Lebanon, where a number of family members live. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

The documents allege a unit within the ISF assigned to follow jihadists and monitor their communications discovered Amer Khayat was communicating with a number of people including his brother Tarek.

Police began to monitor several members of the Khayat family in Australia and Lebanon and discovered Amer was planning to visit Lebanon in July last year.

The documents claim police accessed information on Amer Khayat’s phone and discovered he was communicating with his brother Tarek in a way that supported their belief he was involved in a terror plot.

He was arrested on August 21 in Tripoli, where a number of family members live, and according to the documents he allegedly confessed that he would, with (other people) start to prepare a bomb to bomb an emirate plane over Sydney,’’ the document state.

By emirate, the document is referring to Abu Dhabi, not Emirates Airline, which is based in Dubai.

“His brother Tarek who is in Syria is an emir and a legitimate prince (similar to a cleric) in Islamic State,’’ the documents described Tarek.

Amer Khayat’s case has been adjourned until July 30.

He told News Corp that officials from the Australian Embassy had been to visit him in prison

Originally published as Amer Khayat allegedly told police Etihad flight bomb was ‘set to blow up over Blue Mountains’ before retracting his claim