Brisbane Terror Suspect in ‘Solitary Confinement,’ No Brief of Evidence Yet
Omar Succarieh, 31, continues to spend his time in solitary confinement. The Crown failed to produce brief of evidence yet again. A 22-year-old Queensland man, on the other hand, was freshly accused of planning a terror attack on Australia.
Agim Kruezi faced fresh charges on Friday that included transporting stockpiled machetes, knives, balaclavas and a gun for an alleged terror attack. Kruezi was allegedly planning to launch a terror attack on his home soil. However, no more details regarding the target area is known yet. 9News reported that Kruezi had faced seven charges which included the fresh accusations of transporting firearms intended to be used for a terror attack.
A couple of other suspects, Louis Maestracci (32) and Omar Succarieh (31), were also arrested earlier in 2014. Kruezi'd reference was given at the Brisbane Magistrates Court. The suspects faced delays is getting a brief on prosecution evidence because of the G20 Leaders' Summit which caused police workloads. Commonwealth prosecutor Shane Hunter appealed to be allowed to have eight more weeks for the preparation of a brief of evidence. Courier Mail reported that the lawyers of the suspects appeared in the Brisbane court on Friday, without being accompanied by their clients.
Hunter referred to the workload due to the G20 summit in November disallowed officers to work on this case. "The difficulty the Crown has at this point is the briefs are being prepared by the Australian Federal Police," he said, "Their commitment to the event that's going to happen in Brisbane in November is significant and that will hamper the time frame within which the briefs can be prepared." He said that the Crown had asked for the adjournment as the "intervening event" would slow down the preparation for the brief.
Lawyer James Wallace representing Succarieh said that using the G20 summit as an excuse for the delay was "unfortunate." He said that his office had requested the brief of evidence in September while the investigation had been going on for the last 12 months. Wallace, in his "respectful submission," demanded for an immediate availability of the brief of evidence. He said that the brief should have been organised since the beginning of the case as it was apparently an indispensable part of the court proceedings.
Succarieh has been kept in solitary confinement as he is not allowed to have human contact for most of the time in a day, Wallace argued.
Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au