Australian man allegedly funded terrorist’s travel to join terrorist groups in Syria
An Australian man has faced court accused of financially aiding an overseas fighter to flee his country and join Syrian terrorist groups fighting against the country’s government forces.
Omar Saghir, 39, was arrested by Australian Federal Police officers in New South Wales when he landed at Sydney Airport on Friday, July 16, from Saudi Arabia, where he had been since 2019.
The accused was put in mandatory quarantine, before being extradited to Queensland on Tuesday and facing the Brisbane Arrests Court on Thursday, where he made an application for bail.
He has been charged with one count of making preparations for incursions into foreign states for purpose of engaging in hostile activities. The maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment.
The AFP allege Mr Saghir played a senior role in a Brisbane group that held a “religiously motivated violent extremist ideology” and a desire to travel to Syria to fight.
Mr Saghir has also been accused of co-founding an organisation that provided funds to people who later fled Australia to join Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group fighting against Syrian government forces.
The court heard Mr Saghir allegedly transferred $1010 on August 8, 2013, to ‘Witness 1’ – who was in Turkey at the time, but later went to Syria and fought against government forces.
Commonwealth prosecutor Daniel Whitmore said Witness 1 had provided a full statement to the AFP against Mr Saghir, including details of conversations they had.
These allegedly included discussions of ‘Jihad’, providing Syrian anti-government fighters with “men and armaments” and asking the Mujahideen militant group to help with the fight in Syria.
“We have to open up new or more battlegrounds, we have to attack them,” Mr Whitmore told the court when reading from the statement of Witness 1 regarding alleged conversations with Mr Saghir.
“We have to support our brothers and cleanse the land.
“We have to fight them with the black flag, the flag of Muhammad.”
Mr Whitmore also said Mr Saghir was accused of posting videos to his Facebook account in mid-2019 showing the fighting in Syria and encouraging followers to join and support the cause.
“The applicant believed in a radical Islamic ideology,” Mr Whitmore said.
Legal Aid defence lawyer Axel Beard argued the money transaction was Mr Saghir paying off a debt he owed to Witness 1 and there was no evidence of further offences committed since that date.
Mr Beard said his client’s Australian passport was cancelled in February 2020, he was deported from Saudi Arabia to Turkey, then deported to Australia, where he was arrested.
The court heard Mr Saghir has three children, who live on the Gold Coast. His mother lives on Brisbane’s southside.
Magistrate Tina Previtera denied bail on Thursday, saying Mr Saghir was a flight risk and did not meet “the extremely high bar” set for bail.
Anyone with information about extremist activity or possible threats to the community should come forward and contact the National Security Hotline on 1800 123 400.
Source: Brisbane Times
