Melbourne mosque terror trio jailed

Two Victorian men found guilty of burning down a Shia mosque have been jailed.

Abdullah Chaarani, Ahmed Mohamed and Hatim Moukhaiber were sentenced for burning down a mosque. Picture: Aaron Francis/AAP

Two Victorian Sunni Muslim men found guilty of burning down a Shia mosque in an act of terrorism have been jailed for 22 years while a third has been jailed for 16 years.

Ahmed Mohamed, Abdullah Chaarani and Hatim Moukhaiber burned down the Fawkner mosque in December 2016, following a failed attempt by Mohamed and Chaarani the previous month.

Justice Andrew Tinney said the men were “motivated by hatred, intolerance, malevolence and misguided piety”.

“Your crime is very difficult to understand and quite impossible to excuse,” he said.

He said the men attacked a fundamental value in Australian society, “namely religious freedom”, in order to advance the ideology of Islamic State.

The men faced maximum penalties of life imprisonment.

Justice Tinney said the prosecution case had been refined in two months of legal argument before the trial but was still compelling.

Ahmed Mohamed outside the Melbourne Supreme Court today. Picture: Aaron Francis

Lawyers for Mohamed and Moukhaiber denied the men were at the mosque.

Through his lawyer Chaarani admitted his role but claimed it wasn’t an act of terrorism but instead an act of protest or dissent.

“Your defence Chaarani was optimistic, burgeoning on entirely fanciful,” Justice Tinney said.

He said Chaarani submitted a well-written three page letter to the court expressing his “sorrow, shame and disgust” for the “cowardly action”.

He said Chaarani and Mohamed through their lawyers made public renunciations of Islamic State.

In a letter to the court Mohamed described his path to radicalisation and said his time in prison had helped him interact with people of many backgrounds and faiths.

Justice Tinney said Mohamed also thanked God for his guidance and showing Mohamed his wrongs before it was too late.

Justice Tinney described the letters and material submitted as “unconvincing, contrived and self-serving”.

He said Moukhaiber denied he had been radicalised.

Justice Tinney said the crimes were in the mid-range of seriousness with few mitigating circumstances.

“You harbour extreme and unacceptable views about many things,” he said.

He said the men carried out a “callous, cowardly, vindictive and shameful” attack on a branch of their faith and upon society as a whole.

He sentenced Mohamed and Chaarani to 22 years with a non-parole term of 17 years for the attempt in November and successful attack in December 2016.

Moukhaiber has been jailed for 16 years with a non-parole period of 12 years.