Sevdet Besim allegedly planned a violent rampage to attack a police officer
A MELBOURNE teenager plotted to murder a police officer on Anzac Day by beheading him “in the pursuit of violent jihad”, a court has been told.
A MELBOURNE teenager plotted to murder a police officer on Anzac Day by beheading him “in the pursuit of violent jihad”, a court has been told.
Sevdet Ramadan Besim planned to run the officer over before cutting his head off and going on a violent rampage that would end in his own death.
“The murder was to occur in the pursuit of violent jihad,” Crown prosecutor Jeremy Rapke QC told the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday.
“He wanted to carry out a terrorist attack here in Melbourne and he was prepared to die.”
Besim has pleaded guilty to a single terror-related charge over the Anzac Day plot last year.
The court heard the 19-year-old had a pledge to the leader of Islamic State on his phone and had created a “martyrdom” note discussing his burial wishes.
In online communication with a teenager overseas, he said he chose Anzac Day to “make sure the dogs remember this as well as there fallen heros (sic)”.
Besim said he was “ready to fight these dogs on there (sic) doorstep”.
“I’d love to take out some cops.
“I was gonna meet with them then take some heads ahaha.”
The Hallam teenager wanted to attack Australian authorities because it would show weakness and put fear into the general population, police have said.
The offence he pleaded guilty to — doing acts in preparation or planning for a terrorist act — carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Besim has been in custody since April 18 last year when 200 heavily armed officers swooped on the city’s southeast.
He admits planning his attack from mid-March to mid-April, including researching Anzac Day services in Melbourne and Dandenong.
A Rambo knife with a 40cm blade and a tactical knife were found in Besim’s car.
He told his overseas associate: “I feel like a young kid with a ticket to disney world cant wait ahahah. Yeh i wanna make sure i get shot to. Not b4 i take out at least 1.”
The radicalised Melbourne teenager plotted to behead the police officer after his friend was shot dead, the court has heard.
Sevdet Ramadan Besim began planning the gruesome terrorist attack after his mate Numan Haider died in 2014.
Haider, 18, was shot dead outside Endeavour Hills police station after stabbing a Victoria Police officer and an Australian Federal Police officer attached to the Joint Counter Terror Team.
Crown prosecutor Jeremy Rapke QC on Monday said it was the catalyst for Besim’s Anzac Day plans.
“He wanted to emulate Haider,” he told the Victorian Supreme Court.
“He wanted to carry out a terrorist attack here in Melbourne and he was prepared to die.”
Besim’s barrister, George Georgiou SC, said the teenager was a young man “who was unfortunately exposed to the influence of older persons who practised a more extreme form of Islam than that with which he had grown up”.
It was a combination of Haider’s death and this exposure to extremism that landed Besim before the court, Mr Georgiou said.
“He is a young and impressionable person,” he said.
Besim spent time with Haider in the hours before the latter’s attack on police.
He has told a psychologist he remains dedicated to Islam but now rejects violent extremism.
Mr Rapke said there should be more evidence on that point before Besim is sentenced over the thwarted attack.
If UK authorities hadn’t pounced on Besim’s teenage associate — revealing the online communication about the Anzac Day plot — there was a real likelihood the attack would have happened, he said.
The plea hearing continues.