Three held under preventive detention orders

THREE men, who were seized during Thursday’s dawn raids across the city, were taken into custody under preventive detention orders.

A RELATIVE of the Sydney man jailed for threatening to slit the throat of an ASIO officer is among the first people to be held under controversial anti-terrorism laws that allow police to detain them without charge.

Three men, who were seized during Thursday’s dawn raids across the city, were taken into custody under preventive detention orders, which allow people to be held for up to two weeks if authorities suspect an “imminent terrorist attack”.

The highly secretive orders, which were initially made in closed court and remain the subject of strict conditions limiting what can be said about them, ­expired at 2pm yesterday, allowing the men to return home without charge.

The first use of PDOs emerged as police yesterday confirmed that two more houses had been raided overnight, continuing Thursday’s dramatic counter-terrorism operation in which more than 800 police raided homes in Sydney and Brisbane, detaining 15 people over a plot to abduct and behead a random member of the public.

The Weekend Australian has been told that police had planned to obtain the detention orders ­before executing Thursday’s raids, as they lacked the evidence to charge those held.

Tony Abbott yesterday sought to reassure the public, rattled by the grisly details of group’s plot, and urged people to go about their normal lives.

“Terrorists want to scare us out of being ourselves and our best ­response is insouciantly to be fully Australian,’’ the Prime Minister said.

“To defy the terrorists by going about our normal business; by being the decent, peaceful, democratic, and tolerant people that Australians always have been and, as far as I am concerned, ­always will be.’’

Mr Abbott confirmed security around Parliament House in Canberra had been strengthened to stop it being a “tempting target”, following an increase of chatter among extremists, involving possible attacks on government infrastructure.

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Responsibility for securing the building has been handed over to the Australian Federal Police, with armed officers to patrol inside the building.

The threat is being taken so ­seriously that, as parliament ­resumes next week, some government ministers may be shifted from ground-floor offices with windows opening on to courtyards.

As part of a review of national security arrangements, the Prime Minister is likely to appoint new ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis as the government’s counter-terrorism tsar, charged with co-ordinating priorities and operational planning. The role will be loosely modelled on Operation Sovereign Borders, the government’s military-led approach to the asylum-seeker crisis, which led to the efforts of multiple government agencies being centralised in a single taskforce.

One man, 22-year-old Omarjan Azari, has so far faced court over the alleged terror plot, charged with conspiring with the Islamic State terrorist organisation to seize someone at random off Sydney’s streets and behead them live on camera.

A 24-year-old man will also face court later this month on weapons charges, while a 22-year-old woman is due in court next month charged with assaulting police during a raid at her home. A 17-year-old woman who was ­arrested will be dealt with under the Young Offenders Act.

Police are continuing to search material seized at more than a dozen properties across the city during the raids, with officers hopeful they will be able to lay further charges.

The three men held under preventative detention orders cannot be named, although one is a relative of Milad Bin Ahmad Shah al-Ahmadzhi, who was sentenced to nine months in jail last month after threatening to kill an ASIO officer. Court documents show Ahmadzhi told the officer “I’m gonna crack your neck” and “come near my family again, I’m gonna slit your throat, pig”.

A family friend, Mehmet Ozalp, said the young man ­became radicalised in part by the experience of seeing Ahmadzhi being subjected to ASIO surveillance, and subsequently arrested in May last year. “The whole family felt it was really unfair, but when you have a young impressionable mind, it has a huge effect,” said Mr Ozalp, an associate professor at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, NSW.

The young man, who was also a member of a street gang, had subsequently fallen under the thrall of radical Islamic material produced online by groups including al-Qa’ida and Islamic State, he said.

“There is a deep-seated anger, with these people, to the point of rage,” Mr Ozalp said.

“He is angry because of what was done to (al-Ahmadzhi). He is angry because he is part of a youth gang and, thirdly, he is angry about what is happening to Muslims around the world.”

Introduced under the Howard government, the legislation surrounding the use of preventative detention orders has been repeatedly criticised, including in two reports tabled in parliament last year, which called for the orders to be abolished. The orders allow police to hold people for up to 14 days “where there is a threat of an imminent terrorist attack”, or after such an attack has occurred “if it is likely vital evidence will be lost”, according to Attorney-General George Brandis.

Under the legislation, it is ­potentially an offence to disclose any details about the orders while they are in operation, while those being detained may only contact their families to tell them they are safe.

A lawyer representing the three men, Nick Hanna, said he had been unable to meet his ­clients during their detention, although they had spoken, and was last night still waiting to be told the grounds on which they were detained.

“I’d asked when they were first detained what the grounds were,” Mr Hanna said. “I was just told ‘it’s terrorism-related’. I’ve now requested in writing a copy of the grounds, I don’t know if (the police) will be forthcoming.

“It’s supposed to be the biggest counter-terror raids in Australia but the only fruit that’s been borne is one person being charged with a terrorist offence and one charged with fairly minor (weapon) offences.”

Speaking while the orders were in place yesterday, Acting AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said that “for a range of reasons I’m not going to confirm how many people are still detained”.

“There are limitations with what I’m prepared to say, both legislatively and operationally,” he added.

Mr Abbott said: “I think the vast majority of Australians are absolutely on the side, as they should be, of the police and the security services who are there to keep them safe.

The last thing any of us would want to do is damage our freedoms in order to preserve our freedoms … We are simply doing what is necessary, in difficult circumstances, to keep our citizens safe.”

Yesterday evening, both the NSW Police and AFP confirmed three men had been held under preventative detention orders and subsequently released. No arrests were made as a result.

Mr Azari has not entered a plea, and will appear in court again in November.