3 Muslim men found guilty of planning terror attacks on Oz army base

CANBERRA - A Victorian court has found three men guilty of planning a terrorist attack on an Australian army base in Sydney.

According to news.com.au, at the end of a 12 week trial, Saney Edow Aweys, 26, Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 33 and Nayef El Sayed, 25 were found guilty of conspiring to do acts in preparation for or planning a terrorist act.

However another two men, Yacqub Khayre, 22, Abdirahman Mohamud Ahmed, 25, who also stood trial over the alleged planned attack have been found not guilty.

After the verdict was delivered, Fattal said: “Islam is truth religion. Thank you very much.”

The trio are currently in custody and the judge has reportedly asked them to appear before the court for a hearing on January 24 next year.

Hundreds of intercepted telephone calls, many translated from Arabic or Somali, formed the basis of the prosecution’s case. The trial heard the men talked of firing until they had used up their ammunition or were killed.

Over 2000 conversations, which were recorded over 10 months and played to the jury, indicated that the men did not acquire weapons but they had picked the target.

In the recorded telephone calls, the court heard Fattal as saying that he would be rewarded in paradise if he sacrificed his life for Islam, and condemned the Australian army’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I am trusting my cause to Allah, God the Almighty. If I find a way to kill the army, I’m gonna do it,” he added. (ANI)