First Aus terrorist sentenced

2004-06-01 11:27

Perth, Australia - The first person convicted under Australia's anti-terrorism laws was sentenced to nine years in jail on Tuesday for plotting with al-Qaeda to bomb the Israeli embassy in the federal capital, Canberra.

Jack Roche, a British-born Muslim convert, had faced a maximum sentence of 25 years but could be out in three after receiving a four-and-a-half year non-parole period, backdated to include 18 months already held in custody.

The court heard Roche underwent military-style training four years ago with the Taliban in Afghanistan, where he briefly met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at a desert camp.

Roche told police that senior members of al-Qaeda and the southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) had asked him to identify US and Israeli targets in Australia.

He admitted carrying out surveillance on the Israeli mission in Canberra and trying unsuccessfully to recruit Caucasian Muslims into a terror cell.

But he told police the planned attack was called off in mid-2000 by the man he knew as JI's leader, Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.

Roche testified that he feared for his life and tried to contact Australia's main spy agency, ASIO, to warn them of the terrorist activities in the country.

But he was ignored at the time and was only arrested in November 2002 during a sweep of Muslim radicals that followed the bombing of a nightclub strip in Bali by JI militants. The attack killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Roche pleaded guilty to the embassy bomb plot on Friday after previously maintaining his innocence during 10 days of testimony.

Judge Paul Healy said he wanted the sentence to act as a strong deterrent but noted Roche's eventual guilty plea and a letter from ASIO chief Dennis Richardson verifying his cooperation.

Without the mitigating circumstance, the sentence would have been 10-12 years, Healy said. Earlier, prosecutor Ron Davies called for the maximum 25-year penalty, saying Roche had affronted Australian values and society by participating in the bomb plot.

"He's planned to bring these ideas, these people who are the scourge of the modern, civilised world, back into his own country," Davies said.

During the trial, the court heard Roche bought high-powered rocket engine igniters before his 2002 arrest and considered US and Israeli targets in Australia to be "legitimate targets".

"If someone punches you, you are allowed to punch them back," he said in a taped interview with a reporter. "I am very concerned about my brothers and sisters of Islam who are being punched by these people."

- AFP