TERRORIST Neil Prakash has begged the Australian Government to help him, months after he was arrested for planning and encouraging Islamic State terror attacks on Australian citizens.

News Corp can reveal that Prakash, 27, has now thrown himself at the mercy of the Australian Government, requesting consular assistance from his jail cell in Turkey.

He has also fathered two children who are entitled to Australian citizenship through descent laws.

Prakash’s plea to the government comes after he spent three years as Australia’s most wanted terrorist, recruiting Australian citizens to join Islamic State, providing them with logistic advice on how to reach Syria, plotting terror attacks and urging others to carry out attacks against innocent people in Australia.

The Melbourne-born terrorist also told police in Turkey that he married a Dutch jihadi bride while in Syria fighting for Islamic State, and the pair had two children, who are believed to still be in Syria.

Australian laws stipulate that anyone born overseas who has at least one Australian citizen parent is entitled to Australian citizenship.

FUTURE IN LIMBO

Prakash has spent the past 10 months in a maximum security jail in Gaziantep, near the Turkish-Syrian border, after Turkish officials caught him trying to cross the border on October 24.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed Prakash had sought consular assistance.

Because he had been previously listed as a proscribed person, meaning anyone who assisted him was guilty of a crime, she had to issue a special permit allowing consular assistance.

So far, consular officials had provided “basic’’ assistance, including liaison with local authorities and visiting him twice in jail.

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Ms Bishop said Prakash was subject to Turkish criminal proceedings, which would have to be resolved before he was extradited to Australia.

“If he were surrendered to Australia I expect him to face prosecution for very serious offences,’’ she said.

As Australia continues its bid to extradite him to face terror charges, a News Corp investigation has revealed:

* ISLAMIC State members told Turkish officials Prakash became an “emir’’, or senior member of the organisation, a claim he denies.

* TURKISH authorities believed he was leaving Syria not to escape Islamic State, as he claims but to carry out further attacks in another country.

* PRAKASH tried to sneak across the border with two women and three children when he was arrested by Turkish police, who appear to have been tipped off by Australia.

* HE paid a people-smuggler $4000 to make the ill-fated attempt to leave Syria.

* HE was injured on the front line while fighting Kurdish PKK/PYD fighters in the Syrian city in Kobane.

* PRAKASH had no idea he was on a kill list drawn up by the Americans, who were targeting a group of foreign-born fighters they had dubbed The Legion.

CLAIMS INVESTIGATED

He admitted to a court in Turkey that he trained at an Islamic State camp with 50 or 60 other fighters in al-Raqqa, then went to the front line and fought with a Kalashnikov weapon against the Kurds.

“We fought for about two weeks. I used Kalashnikov guns. I don’t know if I killed any members of the PYD/PKK in the fights I took part in,’’ he said.

News Corp investigations have revealed Turkish officials initially believed Prakash’s cover story, that he was a Cambodia citizen named Piseth Duong. However, immediate further investigations raised suspicions he was indeed the wanted Australian terrorist Neil Christopher Prakash, although it took months for that to be confirmed.

Ms Bishop refused to comment on the status of any children fathered by Prakash, but News Corp has confirmed the Australian Government is aware of claims Prakash has children. No claims for citizenship have been made.

The identity of his wife is unclear. There have been previous reports he had married an Indonesian woman, and separate reports that he had married a western woman and that she and their baby son has been killed in a US drone strike which was incorrectly believed to have also killed Prakash in Mosul, Iraq, in April last year.

A source in Turkey told News Corp Prakash revealed the existence of his family during informal discussions before he gave his formal statement to police.

“While they’re chatting friendly Prakash told that he married a Dutch woman and has two children in Syria,’’ the source revealed.

“He doesn’t know where they are now.’’

‘LION” OF THE CALIPHATE

Prakash spent the final six months of his time in Syria injured and afraid, running from the evil organisation he had once supported and encouraged others to join.

News Corp can reveal Prakash, 27, hid with two women and three children for his final escape bid, paying a people-smuggler $4000 to help him slip across the Syrian border into Turkey border.

But he was betrayed by someone close to him, and Turkish authorities were waiting as he crossed the border in the early hours of October 24 between the Syrian village of Shamarin, into Inanli, in Turkey.

Prakash’s journey from young Melbourne man to senior jihadist in Syria has been spelled out in detail for the first time in the Kilis Criminal Court, the border city where Prakash is fighting extradition to Australia to face serious criminal charges.

While his story has changed over several months, Prakash, who initially insisted he was a Cambodian national named Piseth Duong, eventually admitted he was a fighter with Islamic State, who trained at a camp in al-Raqqa with other jihadist fighters, and fought on the front line against the PKK/PYD Kurdish forces who were backed by the western coalition.

CALL TO JIHAD

Prakash has outlined how he used a network of corrupt fixers and terrorism supporters to help him get from Australia to Syria, where Australian Government officials say he urged others to attack civilians in Australia and helped recruit and organise foreign fighters to come to Syria.

“I was the son of a Buddhist family and later I chose becoming a Muslim while I was in Cambodia as a result of viewing videos posted by DAESH (a pejorative term for Islamic State) on the internet,’’ Prakash told police.

“Later I decided to go to Syria to join DAESH. I discovered on the internet that I could get false passport and ID from Malaysia in order to get to Syria.’’

Prakash details how he travelled to Malaysia and met a contact called Abdulkadir, who had

previously been in Syria. After obtaining his false documents, he travelled with Abdulkadir to Istanbul, in Turkey, in January 2015, where they spoke on the phone to a man named Abu Serif, who agreed to smuggle them into Syria.

Although Prakash mentions 2015, it is more likely to be 2013.

They made it across the border and spent three weeks in the city of Idlib with a separate jihadist group, Ahrar al-Sham, which was also fighting against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, but later goes on to declare war against Islamic State.

“I lied to the Ahrar al-Sham group which is against DAESH and told them I would be going to join another group against DAESH, then I went and joined the DAESH camp in al-Raqqa,’’ Prakash said.

“After about a little bit more than two weeks training here with a group of 50-60 people, I went to fight with PYD/PKK (Kurdish) groups somewhere near (the Syrian city of) Kobane.

“We fought for about two weeks. I used Kalashnikov guns. I don’t know if I killed any members of the PYD/PKK in the fights I took part in.’’

BRUTAL REALITY

Prakash then details how he was injured, which led him to decide he no longer wanted to fight with Islamic State.

“Whilst fighting in Kobane I sustained injuries to my arm and chest as a result of the bomb the PYD/PKK used against us.

“As a result, they took me to a health centre located in Membic (near Aleppo).’’ Prakash tells the IS commander in Membic he no longer wants to fight and obtains approval to

another group in al-Raqqa.

“Here the DAESH commander insisted I fight again and when I said I won’t fight then they threatened to kill me,’’ he said.

“Then I found a way and I ran from their Raqqa headquarters.’’

He says he was on the run for “about six months’’ when he remembered a friend he had met in Idlib, (name redacted) ... who had been against him joining DAESH.

He said he made inquiries about him, and discovered he had been killed in an air strike by “the Assad supporters.’’

“When I found out about his death I helped (his) family with food and money,’’ he told police.

“(His) widow, (name redacted) and their children (names redacted) told me they wanted to cross into Turkey together with their friends.

“Subsequently, in order to cross into Turkey we approached a people smuggler named Hasan in the Azaz region.’’

ESCAPE ATTEMPT

Prakash said he paid Hasan $4000 and in return he took the group close to the border on the night of October 23.

“He showed us the border and then he left. We were captured by the soldiers after crossing the border,’’ he said.

The court was told that Prakash was carrying documents in the name of Cambodian citizen Piseth Duong and Turkish officials initially believed this, and had no concerns about him, although quickly realised he was likely Australian citizen Prakash, who has a Fijian-Indian father and a Cambodian mother.

He maintained for months he was Duong, and refused a court-appointed lawyer, but by March, admitted his identity and sought Australian Government consular assistance.

“The previous statement I provided is half true and half lies,’’ he told the court in June.

“If I must tell the facts, my real name is Neil Christopher Prakash. I want to remain in Turkey, I am a Muslim. I went to Syria to fight alongside DEASH. I stayed with DAESH for a period of three years.

“I received a two-week religious training. I taught myself how to use the Kalashnikov. They didn’t give me any training. I was present in the cities of al-Raqqa, Mosul and Membic.’’

In his formal statements to police, Prakash makes no mention of a Dutch woman he claims to have married and fathered two children with in Syria.

While he says he was in the Iraqi city of Mosul, he also makes no mention of being involved in a US drone strike in April last year in which the US and Australia wrongly believed he had been killed in a targeted assassination.