‘Fish brain’ Christmas terror plotter’s fight for freedom
A “fish brain” terrorist locked up for planning to behead and bomb in Melbourne on Christmas has appeared in court.
One of the men who helped plot a Christmas Day terror attack to behead and bomb people at Melbourne’s Federation Square has had his appeal dismissed after trying to argue the jury verdict was “unsafe and unsatisfactory”.
Hamza Abbas was found guilty of committing an act in preparation for a terrorist attack where he, together with three others, plotted to behead people and set off bombs in 2016.
He was jailed for 22 years with a non-parole period of 16 years and six months following a trial in 2019.
Abbas appeared in the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, where court of appeal justices refused his appeal.
“Leave to appeal out of time is refused,” CoA justices said in their reasons.
The terror plot was foiled days before Christmas because police were listening and watching Abbas, along with his co-conspirators Ibrahim Abbas, Abdullah Chaarani and Ahmed Mohamed, as they scouted the location.
During the trial, the now 26-year-old Abbas was labelled a “fish brain” because of his memory problems and told he was kept in the dark about his brother Ibrahim’s plans to bomb and stab people.
His lawyers had argued his conviction should be overturned because the jury verdict was “unsafe and unsatisfactory”.
They also argued the trial judge made errors in how he directed the jury, resulting in a miscarriage of justice.
But prosecutors said it was open for the jury to assess the significance of Abbas going to Federation Square ahead of the planned attack, knowing he joined the others at a rural location in the middle of the night to set off an improvised explosive device.
Abbas also went to Chemist Warehouse with his co-conspirators to buy hydrogen peroxide “not for warts and wounds” but to make a bomb, lawyer Patrick Doyle SC told the court.
Ibrahim Abbas was sentenced by the Victorian Supreme Court after pleading guilty to conspiring “in preparation for a terrorist act”.
Chaarani and Mohamed were found guilty by a jury of the same charge.