Sydney counter-terrorism raid update: Arrested 15-year-old was under prior legal surveillance
The 15-year-old boy arrested during the counter-terrorism raid in Sydney on Thursday was under surveillance for more than a year.
On Thursday morning, police have charged two people, one of them was the unnamed teen and another one was a 20-year-old man named Ibrahim Ghazzawy. The police arrested three other suspects in the afternoon. The five arrested were reportedly involved in the plotting of the December 2014 attack that targeted the Australian Federal Police building in Sydney.
In December 2014, before police discovered the alleged planning and plotting against AFP headquarters, the teen was seen in a photo holding a .30-30 calibre rifle in Chester Hill. Police found it during the Thursday raid.
In August, he was charged with three counts of possessing an unauthorised firearm. As a result, he had been asked to attend counselling with Hanan Dover, a Muslim community advocate and clinical and forensic psychologist, reported Sydney Morning Herald. The Parramatta Children’s Court handed the boy with an 18-month good behaviour bond. Police prosecutor Senior Sergeant Bruce Wells did not agree with the release of the teenager during his first arrest. He believed that the boy was a danger to the safety of the community. He said the teen used coded text messages to communicate with companions, expressing his willingness to become a martyr.
According to the Australian, handwritten notes were obtained from Sydney counter-terrorism raids in December 2014. Several plotters were arrested based on the notes, one of them was from 20-year-old Sulayman Khalid aka Abu Bakr.
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