Convicted ISIS jihadist Mirsad Kandic makes bold legal challenge after he recruited Jake Bilardi

The Islamic State terrorist who recruited Australian Jake Bilardi and encouraged him to blow himself up has made a big claim from behind bars.

The Islamic State terrorist who recruited Australian Jake Bilardi and encouraged him to blow himself up is challenging his life sentence, claiming the teenager was “a ticking time bomb who would have exploded no matter what”.

Mirsad Kandic has launched an appeal in the US Court of Appeals after he was convicted of terrorism offences including causing the death of Bilardi, the 18-year-old from Melbourne whose deadly suicide attack in Iraq a decade ago shocked Australia.

Central to Kandic’s bid to avoid dying in jail is a judge’s decision during his trial to exclude statements Bilardi’s siblings made to the Australian Federal Police about his radicalisation.

“These statements demonstrated that Bilardi, who originally planned to commit a terrorist act in Australia, was a ticking time bomb who would have exploded even absent anything caused by Mr Kandic’s offence,” his lawyer Benjamin Silverman said.

But US Attorney Breon Peace said the secret statements of Bilardi’s siblings – made in the months after the pale teenager joined ISIS – were not “particularly trustworthy” because of family feuds, their efforts to “assuage feelings of guilt” and a lack of corroborating evidence.

Jake Bilardi at Melbourne airport in 2014. Picture: Supplied

Mirsad Kandic in court. Picture: Supplied

An exclusive investigation by this masthead in 2022 exposed how Kandic lured Bilardi to the Middle East from his bedroom in Craigieburn, smuggling him into Syria and encouraging his suicide bombing that was part of an ISIS operation that claimed up to 55 lives.

It also uncovered a series of phone calls and social media conversations between Bilardi and his siblings in Melbourne, as they begged him to question the death cult’s brainwashing and reconsider his death wish before his suicide bombing in 2015.

An Islamic State media unit image of the reported suicide bombing conducted by Australian Jake Bilardi.

The Australian’s brothers and sisters did not testify in Kandic’s trial in New York’s federal court, having avoided efforts by his legal team to track them down in Melbourne.

Mr Silverman argued in his appeal – lodged in recent months after Kandic was sentenced in July 2023 – that their interviews with the AFP “powerfully undercut the government’s case”.

“They showed (Bilardi’s) commitment to suicide terrorism before he met Mr Kandic,” he said, claiming the teenager told one of his brothers that he wanted to become a martyr several months before he left Australia to join ISIS in 2014.

Mr Silverman told the court the siblings’ statements also referenced Islamic State material on Bilardi’s laptop and bomb-making materials in his bedroom, as well as his “proclivity for violence” including an episode in which the teen pulled out a knife and threatened to stab his family.

Jake Bilardi (left) after leaving Australia to fight with ISIS. Picture: Supplied

“The siblings had no incentive to lie, and what they described is embarrassing in many ways for their family,” he said.

But Mr Peace dismissed these arguments, telling the US Court of Appeals that a judge had already found the siblings’ statements to be “the ramblings of these people who did not pay attention to (Bilardi)”.

“The proffered statements are not the most probative evidence addressing Bilardi’s behaviour,” he said.

“Rather his blog, his statements on Facebook and Twitter, recorded calls with his siblings, the contents of his cellphone, laptop computer, and photographs of the items recovered from his room were all stronger pieces of evidence and all had been produced.”

Mr Peace said the evidence was “overwhelming” that Kandic facilitated Bilardi’s travel to ISIS territory – after Bilardi struggled to find a way until he connected with him online – and then encouraged the teen “to engage in a suicide bombing” that he celebrated on Twitter.

“Kandic’s conviction should be affirmed,” he said.

Originally published as Convicted ISIS jihadist Mirsad Kandic makes bold legal challenge after he recruited Jake Bilardi