Trio plead guilty to terror plot to gun down people in Melbourne

Three Melbourne men have pleaded guilty to a horrifying terror plot to gun down members of the public.

Three wannabe terrorists have pleaded guilty to plotting to gun down members of the public in Melbourne.

Hanifi Halis, 23, Samed Eriklioglu, 28, and his elder brother Ertunc Eriklioglu, 33, appeared via video link from prison in the County Court of Victoria on Friday.

The trio admitted to conspiring together to buy a firearm, in preparation or planning for a terrorist act between November 9 and November 19, 2018.

Wannabe terrorist Hanifi Halis admitted to plotting an attack using a firearm. Stuart McEvoy/The Australian.

All three stood when asked and Halis was the first to enter his plea.

“Guilty,” he told Judge Michael O’Connell.

“The ‘terrorist act’ was an action or threat of action involving an attack on members of the public with a firearm,” the indictment reads.

It was action or threat of an attack was to be done with the intention of advancing “Islam through violence”, according to the document.

Samed Eriklioglu, 28, after he was arrested for terror offences in 2019. Picture Jay Town

Ertunc Eriklioglu, 33, and his younger brother admitted to planning the attack. Picture Jay Town

Their aim was to coerce or intimidate a government and also members or sections of the public, it reads.

However, the document does not reveal the location of the foiled attack.

During the brief court hearing the group told the court they worked in landscaping.

The three men, who remain in custody, will face pre-sentence hearing in June.