In this file April 25, 2014, file photo, a pipe band marches during the ANZAC Day parade in Sydney. Almost a year later, five Australian teenagers were arrested on suspicion of plotting an Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack
A teenage suspect discussed with a British accomplice packing a kangaroo with explosives before setting it loose on Australian police officers, prosecutors alleged yesterday.
Sevdet Ramadan Besim was ordered in the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday to stand trial in the Victoria state Supreme Court on charges that he planned an Islamic State group-inspired terrorist attack at a Veterans’ Day ceremony that included targeting police officers in April last year.
Besim, 19, pleaded not guilty to four charges relating to a plot to attack commemorative services in Melbourne or the neighboring city of Dandenong to mark ANZAC Day, the annual April 25 commemoration of the 1915 Gallipoli landings in Turkey. The campaign was the first major military action fought by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I and hundreds of thousands attend commemoration services around Australia.
Besim and four alleged conspirators were arrested in Melbourne a week before ANZAC Day. He has been in custody since and now faces a potential life sentence in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Besim discussed with a British-based accomplice in online conversations that a kangaroo could be packed with explosives, painted with “the IS symbol” and set loose on police.
Besim was also accused of planning to use a car to run over, then behead, a police officer. He allegedly said in online communications he was “ready to fight these dogs on there [sic] doorstep.”
“I’d love to take out some cops,” Besim is alleged to have written. “I was gonna meet with them then take some heads.”
Police allege Besim was motivated by an extremist ideology and had expressed support for terrorist organizations, particularly the Islamic State movement. AP
No Comments