Fight to keep Grand Final terror attack plotter Abdul Nacer Benbrika locked up
After 15 years behind bars, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, Victoria’s most dangerous terrorist, has been moved into an apartment-style prison facility with a BBQ garden, where he is eligible to apply for the dole and undertake educational courses.
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Victoria’s most dangerous terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika has been moved into a new prison apartment-style block with a BBQ garden.
Benbrika, who this month completed his 15-year jail term as a member and “spiritual leader’’ of a terror organisation, was moved from a Barwon Prison wing into the $21m Piper detention unit last Thursday — the day his sentence expired.
The detention facility was built to keep the state’s highest risk offenders behind prison walls after serving their term.
The 60-year-old Algerian-born radical cleric will be kept inside the high-security unit for 28 days while his latest court fight with the federal government plays out.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has applied to keep Benbrika in detention for the next three years, regarding him as being an unacceptable risk of reoffending.
But Benbrika is challenging the federal Continuing Detention Order (CDO), his lawyers claiming it is unlawful under the Constitution.
Benbrika is also fighting the government on whether he is an unacceptable risk of causing further harm.
The new Piper detention unit is a 10-bed facility within Barwon prison and has been designed to house convicted terrorists, serious sex offenders and other violent criminals deemed too dangerous to be released into society at the end of their term.
Benbrika is understood to be the first convicted terrorist to be placed in the unit.
It contains 10 individual rooms across four units, and boasts a barbecue area, lawn and garden.
While detained, Benbrika is eligible to apply for the dole and undertake educational courses.
He will also be expected to cook for himself, clean his unit and tend to the garden.
Prison sources say the unit has been used as a quarantine area during the COVID-19 pandemic but since late October has been vacant.
The Sunday Herald Sun also understands mainstream prisoners recently cleaned the cell and common areas where Benbrika will be housed in preparation for his arrival.
The father of seven has continued to preach Islam inside prison and has been regarded as a well-behaved inmate.
But there are concerns he has inspired young men to turn to jihad since his incarceration.
Benbrika is contesting his detention in a Supreme Court trial, while a constitutional challenge has been listed in the High Court of Australia for next month.
In 2005, Benbrika and 16 of his followers were busted by Operation Pendennis, which investigated terror cells operating in Melbourne and Sydney, over the planning of attacks on Australian soil.
Among plots discussed was a bombing attack at the MCG on Grand Final day in 2005, and an attack on Crown casino.
There has long been talk about Benbrika being deported back to his country of birth at the end of his prison sentence.
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