Five found guilty of Australian terrorism plot
Prosecutors said the men gathered firearms, chemicals and bomb-making instructions from July 2004 to November 2005, but did not reveal the target of the planned attack.
The Sydney men, four of whom are of Lebanese descent while one is of Bangladeshi origin, face possible life sentences. The five, who cannot be named, range in age from 25 to 44.
They showed little reaction to the verdict after their 10-month trial — Australia’s longest terror proceedings.
Four other men pleaded guilty and earlier received sentences of up to 18 years and eight months for taking part in the same plot.
Australia’s former conservative government was closely aligned to the policies of former US president George W Bush, and the country was one of the first to commit troops to the Iraq and Afghan wars.
The five took Australia’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as “acts of aggression against the wider Muslim community”, prosecutor Richard Maidment told New South Wales Supreme Court earlier.
They spent months collecting chemicals, firearms and ammunition, and raids on their homes found “large quantities of literature which supported indiscriminate killing, mass murder and martyrdom in pursuit of violent jihad”.
The men had pictures and videos showing the hijacked aircraft smashing into the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, Maidment said.
Lawyers for the accused said there were innocent explanations for much of the material and labelled the case “propagandist”.
Sentencing hearings for the five will start on December 14.
