Three men guilty of plotting to rain Christmas Day terror on Melbourne

From The Age

Three Melbourne men have been found guilty of plotting a Christmas terror attack at major city landmarks in a jihad-inspired plan to inflict mass carnage.

It can now be revealed Ahmed Mohamed, 26, Abdullah Chaarani, 28, and Hamza Abbas, 23, were on November 2 found guilty of conspiring to plan or prepare for a terrorist act, after a Supreme Court jury deliberated for six days.

The guilty verdicts, which came at the end of a long trial, followed an earlier guilty plea by the fourth member and ringleader of the would-be terror group, Ibrahim Abbas, 24, Hamza’s brother.

The verdicts were suppressed from when they were announced, following an application by lawyers for two of the men. Justice Christopher Beale later ruled the verdicts should be reported, however defence lawyers challenged the judge’s decision at the Court of Appeal. The reasons behind the suppression cannot be reported.

The lifting of the ban on reporting the guilty verdicts comes five days after the terror attack on Melbourne’s Bourke Street which left two dead and two injured.

The Court of Appeal on Wednesday ruled media should be able to report the verdicts.

On November 2, Mohamed and Chaarani smirked at each other and exchanged words in the dock when the jury foreman announced that Hamza was guilty, knowing the same verdict was coming their way. After guilty verdicts were recorded for all three men, Chaarani playfully slapped Hamza on the leg as the trio sat together. The men smiled, winked and muttered words to family members as they were led into custody, as a packed court room watched on.

Ahmed Mohamed, Abdullah Chaarani and Hamza Abbas in court.

Ibrahim Abbas told police he wanted to carry out the terror attack at a public place at a busy time of year, to inflict mass casualties and invoke fear. “The bigger, the more terror is achieved, and that’s the point,” he told officers. He told police after his arrest: “I believe that engaging in these acts is a religious thing and I was at the forefront of this group when it came to … propagate this message.”

The prosecution case was that the men planned to use bombs and machetes to kill innocent people at Federation Square, Flinders Street Station, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Young & Jackson hotel.

The men were willing to die for their beliefs in waging jihad against those they considered disbelievers.

The Australian-born quartet were arrested by counter-terrorism police on December 22, 2016 and have been in custody since. 

The three men were remanded in custody to return for a pre-sentence hearing at a later date.