NSW: Lawyers label terror trial case 'propagandist'
18 Nov 2008 2:48 PMBy Amy Coopes
SYDNEY, Nov 18 AAP - Lawyers acting for five Sydney men accused of plottinga terrorist attack have slammed the case against them as "propagandist" suspicion.
Dina Yehia, barrister for the accused man Abdul Rakib Hasan, has told the NSW Supreme Court there were innocent explanations for many of the acts saidby the Crown to be in preparation for a terrorist strike.
Hasan, 39, is one of five men standing trial for allegedly hatching a terrorist plot between June 2004 and and November 2005.
Ms Yehia told the jury she would "hotly contest" a series of inferences drawn by the Crown to support its case Hasan was preparing for terrorism or supported violent jihad.
"The crux of Mr Hasan's case in relation to the charge is that he did not intentionally become involved in any such agreement," she told the court.
"None of his acts were intended to be acts in preparation for a terrorist act or acts."
Fire starters and camping equipment found in his possession were legitimately held for outdoor pursuits, she said.
A laboratory equipment catalogue and other instructive material found in Hasan's home were for the home schooling of his four children.
Ms Yehia denied Hasan purchased chemicals for terrorist purposes.
Nor did he attend training camps in western NSW with some of his co-accused.
"These were not mujahadeen and he's not a mujahid (holy warrior)," Ms Yehiasaid.
"This was a group of men going on a hunting trip and discharging firearms."
Ms Yehia said it was not in dispute that Hasan, a Bangladeshi-born butcher,prayed with the other men at the Lakemba Mosque.
"There's absolutely no issue in this case that Mr Hasan is a devout Muslim," she said.
"Terrorist he is not."
David Dalton, SC, for Mohamed Ali Elomar, 43, accused the Crown of mountinga "propagandist" notion of violent jihad and said its inference that he was a terrorist because he read extremist material and mixed with an outspoken sheikh was "akin to McCarthyism".
Mr Dalton and Ms Yehia both said there was no proof their clients had read any of the fundamentalist literature recovered from the homes of variousgroup members.
Even if Elomar had read the literature, Mr Dalton said he was entitled to seek the material in search of a different perspective on such issues as theIraq War.
Mr Dalton said Elomar had legitimately owned and registered the dozen firearms recovered on police raids of his home and was a licensed shooter.
He was never recorded uttering extremist sentiments during many hours of surveillance and telephone intercept material.
Ms Yehia told the jury they had been shown only a small and skewed selection of Islamic literature found in the group's possession, before presenting an alternate collection from Hasan's home.
Labelling the use of threats and violent means "incomprehensible to Muslims", Ms Yehia said the documents illustrated a "non-violent, peaceful view ofIslam" which contradicted the beliefs of Hasan as depicted by the Crown.
The trial is continuing.
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