Homegrown terrorist Neil Prakash stripped of citizenship

Neil Prakash ‘no longer considered an Australian’ after serving the murderous Islamic State ­organisation.

Islamic State fighter Neil Prakash. Picture: AAP

Terrorist Neil Prakash — now locked up in a Turkish ­prison facing a jail term of up to 15 years and accused of inciting a terror plot in his former home state of Victoria — has been stripped of his ­Australian citizenship for serving the murderous ­Islamic State ­organisation.

The 27-year-old was notified on December 21 by the federal government that he was no longer considered an Australian, becoming the 12th person to have their citizenship stripped over associations with declared offshore terrorist organisations.

The Weekend Australian understands Prakash holds Fijian citizenship through his father, and that Fijian authorities have been notified about the decision to ­rescind the Islamic extremist’s Australian citizenship.

Australia’s formal extradition request will remain in place until the conclusion of appeal and criminal proceedings against ­Prakash, including any custodial sentence imposed on him by a Turkish court. In addition to Australia’s extradition request, the US, Britain and Israel have also expressed interest in questioning Prakash.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told The Weekend Australian his first priority “is and always will be the safety and security of all Australians”.

“This government is determined to deal with foreign terrorist fighters as far from our shores as possible,” he said. ­“Islamic State is opposed to Australia, our interests, values, democratic beliefs, rights and liberties.”

Australian authorities have targeted dual nationals fighting or ­associated with overseas terror conflicts, in response to the rise of international violent extremism in Syria, Iraq and other radical ­Islamic hot spots.

Under section 35 of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, a dual national’s Australian citizenship ceases if they act contrary to their allegiance to Australia by engaging in terrorism-related conduct. Mr Dutton said Prakash had failed in his duty to show ­allegiance to Australia.

“To be in the service of such a terrorist organisation, as Mr Prakash was, is to act inconsistently with your allegiance to Australia and we will do everything we can to ensure he is brought to account for his crimes,” he said. “Under Labor, terrorists couldn’t be strip­ped of their citizenship. This government has now stripped Aust­ralian citizenship from 12, and our country is safer as a result.”

Prakash, who fought with Islamic State under the nom de guerre Abu Khalid al-Cambodi, had his passport cancelled in 2014 and was added to Australia’s official sanctions list three years ago.

The sanctions list details his address as Gaziantep ­H-Type Prison in Turkey. He has former addresses in Syria, Iraq and Noble Park and Clayton South in Victoria. In July, a Turkish court rejected Australia’s bid to have Prakash extradited, but officials in Can­berra have expressed hope that decision could be overruled by a different court, a move being supported by Turkish authorities.

Prakash, who was radicalised in Melbourne, is facing Turkish terrorism charges, including for membership of a terrorist organisation. He faces between 7½ and 15 years in jail if convicted on the Turkish charges. Last week, he pleaded unsuccessfully to be released on bail. Prakash will next appear in court on February 20.

The terrorist, who featured in Islamic State propaganda videos and led an international recruitment drive for English-speaking extremists, had argued in court that he did not want to return to Australia and instead asked to be taken to a Muslim country.

Australian authorities have sought to pursue Prakash over his role in a 2015 plot targeting Anzac Day services in Melbourne and a Mother’s Day plot. The Australian Federal Police wants Prakash to face charges of being a member of a terrorist organisation and “incursions into a foreign state with the intention of engaging in hostile activities’’.

Prakash entered the Syrian conflict five years ago, travelling via Malaysia in November 2013.

At that time, he had been a Muslim for little more than a year, and spoke little or no Arabic.

He had been raised as a Buddhist by his Cambodian-born mother, who had schizophrenia, and had little to do with his Fijian-born father.

Prakash had a troubled childhood and was bullied as a teenager before dropping out of high school in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs. He became an ­apprentice mechanic and was an aspiring rapper and car enthusiast. Some time in 2012, a friend urged him to explore Islam and took him to Melbourne’s notorious — now defunct — al-Furqan Islamic Centre.

It was there that Prakash met others who would go on to ­infamy. One was Abdul Numan Haider, who was just 18 when he was shot dead while attacking two counter-terrorism officers with a knife outside a suburban Melbourne police station in September 2014.

It was the first terrorist attack on Australian soil since Islamic State declared its so-called caliphate, and Prakash tweeted: “May Allah Swt accept my dear brother Nouman’s (sic) efforts.”

Prakash also worked closely with now-slain British recruiter Junaid Hussain, who instructed a Melbourne teenager to build a bomb and detonate it in a public place in 2015. The teenager was sentenced to a minimum eight years and three months over the plot.

Australia was not the only country affected by Prakash’s work with Islamic State. As part of the Anzac Day plot, he had a teenager in Britain act as a middleman with Melbourne man Sevdet Besim.

Besim, now in prison for plotting to attack a Melbourne Anzac Day ceremony in 2015, talked with Prakash following Haider’s death and was put in contact with the British teenager, an Islamic State supporter. Both the teenager, who has also been jailed, and Prakash encouraged Besim to carry out an attack. Besim was arrested a week before Anzac Day in 2015.

Days later, Islamic State ­released a propaganda video solely focused on Prakash and how he joined the terrorist group.

Earlier this year, it emerged in a US court that Prakash also warned terror plotters who were planning to bomb New York’s Statue of Liberty and other landmarks to avoid speaking to a man who turned out to be an FBI ­informant.

In 2015, Prakash posted a bomb hoax on Twitter that caused havoc on international travel services in the Middle East. Etihad, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines diverted or turned back flights after he claimed explosives had been placed on two planes.

Prakash was caught fleeing the conflict zone and crossing into Turkey in October 2016, with a closely clipped beard, a fake ID and a visibly injured arm.

Prior to his arrest, Australian authorities had picked up intelligence that he was planning to cross the border and tipped off their Turkish counterparts.

In a series of court appearances since then, Prakash has ­repeatedly expressed regret for joining Islamic State, and has tried to play down his role in inciting terrorist plots in the West. He has also claimed he was forced to participate in propaganda videos and online recruitment methods by the group.

The Australian previously ­revealed that Prakash had been on a US kill list before he escaped to Turkey, and had been placed on a financial and travel-sanctions list by then foreign minister Julie Bishop in 2015.