Terrorists smile as they're jailed

Moments after judge Anthony Whealy sentenced the five Sydney terrorists, the men looked calmly around the courtroom and smirked.

THEIR smiles said it all. Moments after judge Anthony Whealy ordered the five Sydney terrorists to serve jail sentences ranging from 23 to 28 years, the men looked calmly around the courtroom and smirked.

If nothing else, their reaction seemed to confirm the judge's assessment that not one of the five had any remorse for plotting violent jihad on Australian soil.

In fact, the judge said, the men seemed to "wear their imprisonment like some kind of badge of honour", seeing it as "a test of their faith and a burden willingly borne as a duty arising from their fundamentalist religious conviction".

Having presided over the 11-month trial -- one of the longest and most expensive in Australia's history -- Justice Whealy yesterday took four hours to deliver his sentencing remarks in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney.

He said the group's actions "fell only marginally short" of the most serious case of criminality.

The jailing of the men was challenged by members of the Muslim community, with cleric Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali saying the case had the "scent of hysteria", and the five had "no connection to acts of terror whatsoever".

The men, aged between 25 and 44, were found guilty last October of conspiring to do acts in preparation for a terrorist act or acts between July 2004 and November 2005.

Their crimes involved stockpiling explosive chemicals, firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition which they intended to use in a manner that "would at the very least create a very serious risk to the health and safety of members of the public".

"While I cannot be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that any of the offenders intended directly to kill or take human life, it is clear . . . that the fanaticism and extremist position taken by each offender countenanced the possibility of loss of life if that were to occur," the judge said.

"Each conspirator intended that the ultimate act or terrorist act was to be an effective one."

The prosecution never identified any particular target as the focus of the group's activities, but the jury accepted the crown's argument that an attack could have been imminent at the time of the men's arrest in November 2005.

Yesterday Justice Whealy said "the driving fanaticism" of the conspiracy ensured that the plot would have quickly swung into action "once sufficient material had been assembled".

"There is no reason to doubt that, absent the intervention of  the authorities, the plan might well have come to fruition in early 2006 or thereabouts," he said. 

The five men were not the only ones involved in the conspiracy. Four co-conspirators, aged between 28 and 33, pleaded guilty to terror-related offences prior to the conclusion of the trial, and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 1/2 years to 14 years.

Before the men were arrested, police monitored several members of the group when they travelled to a property in western NSW for an alleged terrorist training camp.

But Justice Whealy said yesterday he was not convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the trips were anything more than "bonding camps". One week before the group's arrest, the police operation went into "overdrive" when an off-duty officer witnessed one of the men under surveillance purchasing a large amount of chemicals from a hardware store.

Most of the group had little personal wealth but they were not motivated by financial reward or private revenge, Justice Whealy said. "Rather, an intolerant and inflexible fundamentalist religious conviction was the principal motivation for the commission of the offence.

"It was the duty of each individual offender, indeed a religious obligation, to respond to the worldwide situation (the perceived attack on Islam by the US and its allies) by preparing for violent jihad in this country, here in Australia."

During the trial, crown prosecutor Richard Maidment SC said the men were driven to plot violent jihad in retaliation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They spent months working together to acquire chemicals, firearms and ammunition, and extremist literature found in their homes showed they had violent intent, he said.

Justice Whealy yesterday referred to an instructional video file found in the possession of four of the offenders, which showed a masked mujahidin with an Australian accent say: "You kill us, so you will be killed. You bomb us, so you will be bombed."

"This is an overly simplistic but reasonably accurate summation of the mindset of each of the offenders in this trial. It is the mindset that prompted the entry of each man into the conspiracy and, no doubt, motivated his actions."

The group's leader was sentenced to 28 years' prison with a non-parole period of 21 years. Another was imprisoned for 27 years with a minimum of 20 years and three months; two others were each ordered to serve 26 years behind bars and will not be eligible for release for 19 years and six months.

The youngest member of the group was sentenced to 23 years in jail, with a minimum of 17 years and three months.

And while the men may have smiled upon hearing their sentence, their family members reacted differently.

The sister of one of the terrorists sobbed uncontrollably in the foyer of the court, before speaking to the waiting media outside.

"That (the sentence) is half of his life -- this is not fair, this is not fair to our community, not (to) our religion," she said. "Not even murderers get sentenced that much."

Lawyers for the terrorists indicated they were likely to appeal.

Additional reporting: Lanai Vasek