Australian terror suspect 'trained with al-Qaida'

An Australian arrested last month for allegedly belonging to an extremist Islamic terror cell underwent training in Afghanistan and met al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden, a police officer told a court today.

Detective Ben Condon told Melbourne Magistrates Court that Shane Kent attended the al-Farooq terrorist training camp in Afghanistan from June to August 2001.

Condon was testifying at a hearing where Kent, 28, and another terror suspect, Amer Haddara, 26, were seeking to be released from custody pending their trials on charges of belonging to a terror organisation.

The men were among 18 Muslims arrested on November 8 in co-ordinated pre-dawn raids in Melbourne and Sydney in an operation police said headed off a catastrophic terror attack in Australia, possibly targeting a nuclear reactor in southern Sydney.

Condon said a witness, whose identity was not released by the court, had given a statement saying Kent attended the camp and met bin Laden.

Kent’s passport was cancelled by the Australian government in 2002 while he was on a trip to Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates with his wife and mother-in-law, the court was told.

The hearing was scheduled to continue tomorrow.