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Muslim cleric jailed 15 years in Australia terror case

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-03 14:45

MELBOURNE - An Australian court sentenced a Muslim cleric to 15 years in jail on Tuesday for leading a terrorist cell that planned to bomb a football match in Melbourne in 2005, ending Australia's biggest terrorism trial, local media reported.

A police officer stands guard outside Melbourne Magistrates Court in early April 2006 as authorities accused Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika of terrorism. The Muslim cleric and six followers have been jailed for up to 15 years after being found guilty of forming an terror cell which plotted bomb attacks designed to kill thousands. [Agencies]

The attack, aimed at forcing Australia to withdraw troops from Iraq, did not take place.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, was sentenced on three charges, receiving 15 years for directing a terrorist group, seven years for being a member of a terrorist group and five years for possessing a CD connected with the planning of a terrorist act.

Benbrika will serve the terms concurrently.

The Victoria state Supreme Court sentenced six other Muslims to jail terms ranging from four to seven-and-a-half years, said local media at the court.

Court officials confirmed the seven men were sentenced, but could not immediately release the details.

Australia's largest terrorism trial saw 12 men initially charged with planning to attack a grand final football match in Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne, attended by 97,000 fans. Seven were convicted in late 2008.

"The group may have indeed only have been an embryonic terrorist organisation ... but the organisation fostered and encouraged its members to engage in violent jihad and to perform a terrorist act," said Judge Bernard Bongiorno in handing down the sentences.

He said Benbrika still supported violent jihad as an integral part of religious obligations, reported local radio.

"All the evidence points to the conclusion that he maintains his position with respect to violent jihad," the judge said.

The court heard during the trial that Benbrika, a former aircraft engineer, migrated to Australia from Algeria in 1989.

Bongiorno said terrorist acts in modern times were carried out by unskilled fanatics like Benbrika.

Australia has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil, but more than 90 Australians were killed in bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali since 2002.