Ertunc and Samed Eriklioglu, Hanifi Halis: ISIS-inspired terror plot accused ‘wanted to make a difference in Syria’
Ertunc Eriklioglu initially thought IS were trying to create a safe place for Muslims to live, court hears.
Friends of three men accused of plotting “violent jihad” in Melbourne have told a court how the trio stopped praying at a mosque, showed them Islamic State propaganda, listened to an al-Qa’ida preacher and wanted to go to Syria.
Hanifi Halis, 21, along with brothers Ertunc, 30, and Samed Eriklioglu, 26, faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday charged over an alleged Islamic State-inspired terror plot.
“The terrorist act was ... namely an attack on members of the public with firearms in a well-populated area of the city of Melbourne,” the court heard.
Trevor Aggrey said Mr Halis began “acting like a scholar” by dressing in long robes and compiling his own hadiths, which are actions or statements of Muhammad.
“There was a notepad and he was reading this to us and … it was hadiths, Islamic knowledge from scholars,” he said.
“He was trying to interpret it — it takes years to study and these [are] young guys. If I have a question about Islam, I go to someone who’s studied for years.”
The group listened to the teachings of al-Qa’ida preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, wanted to go to Syria and watched Islamic State propaganda, the court heard. Mr Aggrey said the accused trio stopped praying at mosques and began praying at home. He was invited to a barbecue where the three asked for money to start a religious school and a meeting house where Muslims could pray.
They then moved into a garage and Mr Halis showed him Islamic State propaganda video on an iPad. “He didn’t say in those words terrorist act but … he kept saying we’ve got to do something,” he said.
The trio was busted after allegedly paying a deposit on an unregistered .22 calibre rifle in November last year.
Hakan Kirbas said the brothers initially thought Islamic State was trying to create a safe place for Muslims to live and express their religion.
Up in smoke: busts smash illicit tobacco trade
Gangsters are flooding Australia with black-market tobacco that’s driving record seizures and bloody turf wars, as smugglers turn cigarettes into the underworld’s most lucrative commodity | WATCH
Senior Democrat presses Trump on Pentagon’s mystery AUKUS subs probe
Joe Courtney, the Democrat co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus, says there’s a ‘systemic issue’ with the Pentagon and information about the AUKUS submarines review is coming in ‘dribbles’.