‘Wannabe ISIS warrior at heart of church, consulate bomb plot’

An IS supporter, arrested over a Sydney terror plot, took part in a deradicalisation program.

Isaak el Matari was arrested yesterday over an alleged Sydney bomb plot.

A 20-year-old Islamic State supporter at the centre of an alleged plot to attack police ­stations, churches and consulates in Sydney was reportedly placed into a deradicalisation program last year.

Isaak el Matari, accused of planning to import weapons and explosives into Australia, was held by Lebanese authorities in 2017 amid claims he planned to fight for ­Islamic State in Syria.

After being returned to Australia last year, he joined the deradicalisation program in June, according to The Daily Telegraph.

He was arrested along with two other young men during six raids by counter-­terrorism police across Sydney’s western suburbs yesterday, foiling the alleged ISIS-inspired plot to target landmarks in Sydney’s centre.

Matari was for a time held by Lebanese authorities after he was accused of planning to cross the border into Syria to join ISIS. Lebanese officials said at the time Matari provided extensive ­information on ISIS recruiting ­efforts in Australia, including the identities of Australian extremists, financiers and supporters.

The other two men arrested yesterday were Radwan Dakkak, 23, who was expected to be charged with membership of a terrorist group, and Ahmad ­Tebeya, 30, an associate of the two, who was charged with unrelated offences, including defrauding commonwealth benefits.

Investigations into the trio began mid-last year when Matari was deported from Lebanon.

“There are still those people in the community who wish to do us harm,” Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney said yesterday.

He added that the alleged plot was in its early stages but painted an alarming picture of what was to come had the conspiracy come to fruition.

“We’ll allege in court that the man (Matari) has made early stage preparation and has ­expressed an intention to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia,’’ Mr McCartney said.

“We’ll also ­allege the man ­indicated a range of potential targets. These include police stations, defence establishments, embassies and consulates, courts and churches.”

Mr McCartney said police ­believed the 20-year-old had “reached out’’ to people overseas to obtain firearms and explosives.

Police at one of the homes raided. Picture: John Grainger

He said police had been monitoring Matari since his return to Australia and that he was “prominent in the global online extremist community’’.

The men are alleged to have used a range of social media platforms, some open, others encrypted, to communicate. “We’ll also allege this man (Matari) indicated he was willing to travel to Afghanistan to fight for Islamic State and he made a number of preparations to do so,’’ Mr McCartney said.

Matari had allegedly taken ­“active steps’’ to travel abroad, ­including obtaining visas and buying airline tickets.

“He had planned to purchase a firearm, obtain a firearm, once he arrived in Afghanistan and ­obviously through these activities he had sworn allegiance to IS and to carry out the activities of IS when he travelled overseas,’’ Mr McCartney said.

The plan to attack targets in Australia and to fight overseas had developed concurrently, Mr McCartney said.

The Australian understands police believe Matari had hoped to join Islamic State Khorasan, ISIS’s powerful affiliate in ­Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Police believe he most likely made the connection to the group through contacts in Lebanon. His arrest has given rise to concerns among security agencies that ­Afghanistan could be the next pipeline for Australian ­jihadists who want to fight ­overseas.

In June, a 29-year-old Melbourne man was arrested by counter-terrorism authorities after he allegedly made plans to travel to Afghanistan where police alleged he planned to fight with Islamic State.

A man is taken into police custody yesterday.

“It’s a concern,’’ Mr McCartney said. “The arrest in Melbourne two weeks ago was similar … We’ve seen it before. It’s something that we need to be very mindful of.’’

The raids prompted Home ­Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to ramp up pressure on Labor to support the government’s Temporary Exclusion Order Bill, which will be introduced into federal parliament tomorrow.

Mr Dutton said introducing the legislation was “incredibly ­important’’ because one of those arrested had returned from ­overseas as an Australian citizen and was alleged to have been ­involved in illegal activities over the past 12 months.

“When some people come back, it is very difficult to gather the evidence that would be ­admissible in a court of law in Australia to convict that person beyond reasonable doubt so we need to make sure that we’ve got every tool available to us to keep Australia safe,’’ Mr Dutton said.

Under the government’s legislation, authorities would have the ability to exclude Australian ­citizens from the country for two years if they were alleged to have been involved with banned ­organisations such as ISIS.

The Home Affairs Minister said the two-year exclusion would give authorities more time to manage an individual who may have been involved with ISIS or trained in terrorism.

Mr Dutton said the raids showed that terrorism remained “a very serious threat’’ and this was the 16th time an alleged ­attack had been thwarted by the authorities.

“It’s not going away and it ­remains current, particularly when we’ve got Australians overseas in a theatre of war being trained by Islamic State or ­inspired online and we want to deal with those people as best we can,’’ Mr Dutton said.