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Three men were found guilty Thursday of plotting to attack a Sydney army base with high-powered weapons and to shoot as many people as possible to further their vision of Islam, AFP reported. The Supreme Court in Melbourne heard that the men, who have been linked with Islamic extremists in Somalia, planned to continue their rampage at Sydney's Holsworthy army barracks until they were killed or captured. Melbourne men Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 34, Nayef El Sayed, 26, both of Lebanese descent, and Somalian Saney Edow Aweys, 27, were found guilty of conspiring to plan a terrorist act, which carries a possible life term. "Islam is truth religion. Thank you very much," Fattal told the jury, according to AFP. Two other men, Somalian Abdirahman Mohamud Ahmed, 26, and Yacqub Khayre, 23, were found not guilty after the three-month trial. They hugged their co-defendants before leaving the dock. Crown prosecutor Nick Robinson earlier said the plot was hatched between February and August 4 last year, when the five were arrested in a swoop involving hundreds of police in Melbourne. Had the plot been successful, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus said it would have been the most serious attack ever carried out in Australia, according to the AP. Prosecutors said one of the men visited Somalia in the hopes of gaining approval for the attack from an Islamic cleric. The men were accused of having ties to al-Shabab, Somalia's powerful Al Qaeda-linked militia group. Agencies |
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