Terrorism raid: Pair charged over alleged Islamic State-linked plot; Sydney garage searched



Two men are accused of plotting a terrorist act after a machete, hunting knife and Islamic State flag were allegedly found during a police raid on a converted garage in western Sydney.

Police said they believed Omar Al-Kutobi and Mohammad Kiad had been planning to carry out an imminent deadly attack.

The men, aged 24 and 25, were arrested during a raid on the converted garage in the back yard of a house in Fairfield on Tuesday.

They have been charged with undertaking acts in preparation or planning for a terrorist act.

The men chose not to appear in Fairfield Local Court today.

They did not apply for bail and it was formally refused.

They were represented by legal aid lawyers who asked for the matter to be adjourned until Thursday.

The Commonwealth DPP Michael Allnutt agreed and said the matter should be heard in Sydney's Central Local Court because they were facing "very, very serious allegations" and there were security issues.

The men will appear via audio visual link tomorrow to apply for bail.

Police say planned attack 'consistent' with Islamic State



Police mounted the raid after a tip-off, and NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn said counter-terrorism officers acted quickly.

"The type of act that we will allege that was going to be undertaken is consistent with the messaging coming out of IS," she said.

"I would like to however reassure the community that we are of the view that there is no further imminent attack relating to these two men.

"When we did the search of the premises, a number of items were located, including a machete, a hunting knife, a home-made flag representing the proscribed terrorist organisation IS, and also a video which depicted a man talking about carrying out an attack," Deputy Commissioner Burn said.

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"We will allege that both of these men were preparing to do this act yesterday."

She said the video allegedly seized in the raid was what made police believe the attack was imminent.

"One of the items that will be introduced into evidence is a video, and in that video, we will allege that one of the men indicated that an attack was going to be carried out," she said.

"We can't go into the details of what was actually said in that message. However, the intent is clear and the intent is what I have told you today.

"The concerning thing about this clearly is that this represents the nature of the environment that we currently face. This is indicative of the threat that we now have to live with."

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said NSW and federal officers acted together as quickly as they could.

"We believe that the men were potentially going to harm somebody, maybe even kill somebody, and potentially using one of the items that we identified and recovered yesterday, potentially a knife," he said.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the arrests were evidence the approach of authorities was working, and flagged a worsening of the terrorism threat.

"Police acted because they assessed a terrorist attack was imminent," Mr Abbott said.

"This was an imminent attack in Australia inspired by the ISIL death cult," he said.

"This is a serious issue and I suspect it will get worse before it gets better.

"As we've seen again and again the death cult is reaching out all around the world, including here in Australia, and regrettably there are people in this country who are susceptible to these incitements to extremism and even terrorism."

He added: "Regrettably, there are those out there, some living in our midst who would do us harm."

Plot 'beyond disturbing' and could have been 'catastrophic': Baird

NSW Premier Mike Baird thanked counter-terrorism police, describing the alleged plot as "beyond disturbing". He also said people should remain vigilant.

"If you see anything suspicious ring it in, because ultimately together we have the capacity to defeat this," he said.

"While our forces continue to do a first-class job, all of us have a role to play in this and I think that's what I want to continue to see.

"Certainly something catastrophic was avoided yesterday and for that we should be very thankful."

A neighbour of the two accused men said he had no suspicion they may have been doing anything wrong.



Roberto Macatangay lives in a caravan at the rear of the property at Fairfield in Sydney's west where the raids were carried out, and said one of the men had lived in a converted garage there for years, while the other arrived more recently.

He said he thought they were brothers.

Mr Macatangay said he never expected the police raid.

"I'm really surprised that thing happened, you know, because they're harmless. I don't see anything about what's wrong with these people you know," he said.

"I've been in trouble but not this kind of trouble. I'm really scared of what happened, you know."

The arrests were made by the Joint Counter Terrorism Taskforce, which has been investigating Australians suspected of plotting terrorism attacks on home soil, or Australians with links to overseas terrorists.

The taskforce has arrested about a dozen people, including 22-year-old Omarjan Azari who has been accused of plotting a campaign of random beheadings of members of the public in Sydney and Brisbane.

Azari remains in jail.




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