ABDUL NACER BENBRIKA. Algerian-born Muslim cleric who is serving a 15-year custodial sentence for being a member of a terrorist organisation. He was one of 17 arrested in Melbourne and Sydney in 2005, charged with planning terrorist attacks on Australia. He has seven children, one of whom, Assia Benbrika, is married to Shayden Thorne. He was a deputy leader at the Islamic Information and Support Centre of Australia in Broadmeadows, Victoria, which is linked to Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association, a movement with links to jihadists. He is reportedly still radicalised and spreading propaganda in prison. Picture: ABC

SHAYDEN THORNE, aged 32.Born in Perth to an Aboriginal father and Malaysian-Muslim mother, Thorne was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison in February 2019 .He was previously in a Saudi Arabian Prison in 2011 for two and a half years for allegedly possessing a laptop containing terrorist material, before being deported to Australia and joining the Tinnie Terrorist plot. Thorne lived in Saudi Arabia for more than 10 years with a radical Islamic preacher. The preacher has spent time in prison for travelling on an aircraft under a false ID and is currently facing drugs and weapons charges in NSW. Last February Thorne later underwent corrective spinal surgery after being attacked by a fellow inmate, damaging his health. He reportedly remains devout in prison, regularly meeting with a Muslim chaplain. His lawyer says a history of family trauma helped drive him towards radical Islamic views. He is related to convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika.

PAUL JAMES DACRE, aged 34. Sentenced to four years’ jail in February last year with a three-year non-parole period for his part in the tinnie terrorist plot. Dacre, from Perth, converted to Islam in 2008, saying it changed his life and helped him conquer his drug addiction. He has four children and was radicalised by the same preacher who lived with Shayden Thorne. Dacre eventually befriended Shayden Thorne and followed him to Melbourne in 2014.

MURAT KAYA, aged 29. Recently freed from prison. Intended to take part in the ‘tinnie terrorist’ plot with his brother Kadir Kaya and previously attempted to travel to Turkey on February 10, 2015, leading to his passport being cancelled. Conditions placed on his release from jail include a curfew, a social media ban, reporting to police twice a week, a ban from travelling overseas and can leave Victoria only with police permission. Claims to ‘deeply regret’ his previous involvement in extreme Islamist movements, but the courts cite his demonstrated support for Islamic militant groups and attempts to travel to Turkey as proof he is an ongoing danger to the community.

KADIR KAYA, aged 25. Brother of Murat Kaya. Months before his arrest the Melbourne local told a radio station he hated ‘with a passion’ Australia and its laws and values. He also claimed he wanted to renounce his citizenship to go live in Turkey. He had attempted to fly to Turkey from Melbourne on a Turkish passport in September 2015 after his Australian passport was cancelled. As a teenager he was a member of Copperfield College’s youth parliament. Sentenced last year to four years, with a non-parole period of three years. At his sentencing, the judge said he had behaved in prison and had good prospects for rehabilitation.

ANTONIO GRANATA, aged 28-29. Local of Melbourne’s west and son of Alfio Anthony Granata, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for repeatedly raping a Dutch tourist in a Melbourne hotel room in 2012. Also may be known as Hamza Granata and reportedly is an Islamic convert.

AHMAD SAIYER NAIZMAND, aged 25. Born in Afghanistan and employed as a gyprock worker in Sydney’s west. Lived in Auburn. Sentenced in February 2017 to four years in prison with a non-parole period of three years for breaching a terror control order by watching Islamic State propaganda videos online. The terror control order was issued in 2015 as he was discovered to be connected to Sydney-based supporters of Islamic State. Was an avid poet, often scribbling jihadi verses valorising terrorism. He is the brother-in-law of Omarjan Azari, who last year was sentenced to 18 years in prison after plotting to behead numerous Australians and funding Islamic State.  

BILAL KHAZAL, aged 50. Born in Lebanon, Khazal came to Australia when he was three years old but returned to Lebanon after a few years in the country. He returned to Australia when he was 18. He was a past member of al-Qa’ida and was trained by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1998. In 2002 the CIA accused him of planning terrorist attacks in Venezuela and The Philippines. The ABC’s Four Corners accused him of being a confidant of Osama bin Laden during his time in the Middle East. He lived in Lakemba and worked as a baggage handler for Qantas before the Sydney Olympics. He was a member of the radical Islamic Youth Movement in Sydney, whose magazine once published an interview with bin Laden. He was arrested in 2004 for writing a book that contained instructions on how to carry out terror attacks and posting it online. In September 2009 he was sentenced to 14 years in prison with a non-parole period of nine years. He was granted bail in 2011 but the federal government appealed to the High Court, leading to his bail being revoked by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. In 2017 he was refused parole after the government received advice that his release would endanger the public. He remains in the Goulburn Supermax.

MAYWAND OSMAN, aged 25.Was charged in connection with allegedly plotting to attack government buildings and a navy base in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo and was detained in 2014. All terrorism charges against him were dropped in June 2016. He remains in prison for unrelated offences and is eligible for release this year. He is the brother of Milad bin Ahmad-Shah al-Ahmadzai, who was imprisoned for attempted murder at a Sydney gay club in 2017 and for threatening to cut the throat of an ASIO officer.


There are also two others who could be released from jail this year. Their names have been suppressed.