Videos shown to jury of Aran Sherani pledging allegiance to Islamic State and vowing to exact revenge on non-believers

A man filmed himself pledging allegiance to Islamic State before pouring petrol on bushland and lighting it on fire in Humevale in Melbourne’s northeast.

A jury has been shown videos of an accused terrorist brandishing a knife and pledging allegiance to Islamic State moments before lighting a bushfire near Melbourne.

Aran Sherani faced the first day of a Supreme Court trial on Tuesday, facing terrorism-related charges after he attempted to start bushfires in Humevale and Kinglake West, north of Melbourne, in the summer of 2021.

During the prosecution opening, jurors were shown a series of videos showing Aran pledging allegiance to Islamic State and vowing to exact revenge on non-believers over the deaths of Muslims in Iraq and Syria.

In one video, Aran, then 19, is shown dressed all in black and holding a knife while dousing bushland near Humevale in petrol before lighting it on fire on February 18, 2021.

Aran Sherani pledged allegiance to Islamic State moments before lighting a bushfire.

“Islamic State still remains,” Aran, whose face is obscured, says to the camera.

“You are not safe anywhere, you will all taste the fire.”

Prosecutor Justin Hannebery KC said the fire, which was lit a few hundred metres from homes, caused minimal damage and was quickly put out.

But he said it was the intention of Aran and his older brother Ari, then 20, who filmed the video and is standing trial alongside him, to commit a terrorist act in the name of Islamic State.

In another video filmed in Kinglake West ten days later, Aran, whose face is blurred, is shown in a selfie-style video dousing a flammable liquid over trees before lighting them on fire.

“To the kafir (nonbelievers), may this fire burn you and your family, may you suffer, may you all die,” he says in the video.

The brothers, from Epping, are charged with attempting to engage in a terrorist act over the Humevale fire, while Aran is facing two further charges over the Kinglake West fire and a video showing him pledging allegiance to Islamic State while brandishing a $3 knife bought from Coles.

The trial heard he has already pleaded guilty to a charge of being a member of Islamic State.

“I Aran Sherani pledge allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” he says in the video taken shortly before his arrest.

“I will pursue revenge for the Muslims and punish the kafir whenever I can.”

“Do Jihad, do Jihad.”

In his opening address, Mr Hannebery said the brothers were interested in and adherents to the terrorist group’s ideology.

He added incriminating evidence was found on their phones and Telegram accounts after their March 2021 arrest.

“They were trying to do a terrorist act, they didn’t achieve it but they were trying to do it,” he said.

Aran’s lawyer Patrick Doyle SC said it was not disputed that his client lit the bushfires or filmed the videos but he did not intend to hurt anyone.

“It’s the defence case Aran didn’t mean to kill Australian citizens, he didn’t mean to harm Australian citizens,” he said.

Mr Doyle said Aran made the videos to send to Islamic State so he could convince them to help him travel to the Middle East so he could fight for the Kurdish people.

Lawyer Colin Mandy, for Ari, said his client filmed his younger brother lighting the Humevale fire but he was not a terrorist.

“Ari Sherani is not a terrorist and he has never been one, he does not have an extremist ideology,” he said.

“He never made an agreement to commit a terrorist act with his brother … because he didn’t have that intention.”

Mr Mandy said Ari was a child of the “social media generation” which explained his willingness to help make the videos.

The brothers showed little emotion as they sat in the dock flanked by custody officers.

The trial before Justice Mandy Fox continues.