'My son loves it here, he's innocent'

THE father of a man accused of planning to launch a terrorist attack on the Holsworthy army base and organising others to join the fight in Somalia has described as "nonsense" the charges against his son.

THE father of a man accused of planning to launch a terrorist attack on the Holsworthy army base and organising others to join the fight in Somalia has described as "nonsense" the charges against his son.

Mohmaud Ahmed told The Weekend Australian he had visited his son Abdirahman in prison yesterday morning and was "100per cent sure" he had nothing to do with the alleged terrorist plot.

Abdirahman Ahmed was arrested in the dawn raids on Tuesday and charged with preparing to attack the base in southwestern Sydney, as well as aiding and abetting Walid Osman Mohamed to go and fight in Somalia.

Mr Ahmed said he and his family were in shock.

"We are very upset," he said. "This is the biggest case in Australia. But I know my son.

"He was very busy going to school and working and coming home late. How can he do something like that?"

Mr Ahmed, who has been in Australia for 15 years, said his son and his family loved their adopted home: "We are very happy here ... we live among friends. How can my children do this? It's nonsense."

He said his son was married, had two children, studied engineering at RMIT and was due to graduate this year. He said the 25-year-old, who prayed at Preston Mosque, was hoping to get a job in the construction industry. The charges against his son had wrecked his life.

"It is very horrible," he said. "It destroys everything, even his choice of staying in Australia."

Mr Ahmed was not alone in his surprise over the charges against his son. Family friend Issak Ahmed described Abdirahman as a good person who was heavily involved in the Somalian community. "I am shocked. He was a good fellow," he said. "And now they are traumatised. They are all shocked, especially his mum. They are suffering badly."

Issak Ahmed said he and Abdirahman had been classmates in Somalia and their families had been very close since moving to Australia.

If Abdirahman was a violent radical, it was also a surprise to his nearest neighbours.

He and his wife and young children live in a small, three-bedroom unit in Preston, 9km north of Melbourne's CBD, directly opposite the East Preston Islamic College.

His neighbours did not know his name, even though they had lived only a few metres apart for the past nine months. But they described them as friendly and polite. Quiet is a word many of his neighbours used.

They said he was often visited by other Muslim men, who would arrive saying they were looking for "our brother". But there was no sense that he was extreme in his religious or political views. He was not known to members of RMIT's Islamic Society.

His father, known as Mo, is a taxi driver and an extremely popular figure in Melbourne's Somali community.

At Preston Mosque, Ahmed family friend Mustafa Mohamud described them yesterday as "good people". Asked about the allegations, he said: "I don't believe this, absolutely."

Another family friend, Hassan, said: "I know these boys and their parents, some of them, and it is very hard for me to believe they would harm Australia, that anyone from my community would harm this country. We will see what the outcome will be. I believe they are good boys and they come from very good families. That's what I believe."

Prayers at Preston yesterday were delivered by a visiting imam from Lebanon. He did not discuss the federal and state police raids.