ISIS bomb maker who planned attacks on Australia claims he only travelled to Syria to play soccer with children

A terrorist who fled to Syria has claimed he never fought in the country but spent most of his days there lying around or playing soccer with local children.

Mehmet Biber, from western Sydney, was arrested in November 2016 as part of a plan to catch a 10-man terror cell police believed was planning attacks in the city.

In February this year, he pleaded guilty to entering a foreign state intending hostile activity over his time in Syria from July 2013 to February 2014 – despite posting on Facebook: ‘I’m a tourist not a terrorist’ when he was there.

Biber reportedly learnt to use explosives while training with Al-Nusra Front – an affiliate of al-Qaeda – before being recruited to ISIS by convicted terrorist Hamdi Alqudsi when he got back to Australia.

During a sentencing hearing in the NSW Supreme Court at Parramatta on Friday, the now 25-year-old said he travelled to the war-torn region aged 20 because he wanted to help after seeing videos of women and children suffering under the Assad regime.

‘That hit me in the heart because I had a wife (who) was pregnant at the time as well,’ Biber told the court.

One of Biber’s friends introduced him to a man who had connections in Syria and organised for him to join a group travelling there via Turkey.

But a trip to Raqqa a month into his stay led him to doubt whether he was achieving anything.

‘We were extremely bored,’ Biber told the court, claiming most days were spent lying around sweating or kicking a soccer ball with local children.

He denied ever fighting but admitted he would have tried if given the chance.

‘If anything I was a burden to these people, feeding me and taking us around, practically treating us like kids, pretty much babysitting us.’

Biber was asked about a photograph sent back to Australia showing him in a group of nine men holding assault weapons.

He was asked during cross-examination why they were dressed in black with only their eyes showing.

‘Because it looked cool,’ he replied. We thought it looked cool.’

Biber insisted he’d simply grabbed a gun off guards to pose for the photograph and didn’t want people back in Australia to think he was a fighter.

‘If I did, I wouldn’t have covered my face,’ he said. ‘These days, my generation takes photos of everything they do.’

Biber has been in custody since his 2016 arrest.

‘I just want to put it behind me, hopefully, and get on with my life,’ he said on Friday.

The hearing, before Justice Christine Adamson, continues. Biber faces 20 years in jail.

Source: Daily Mail