A Sydney man arrested in the country’s largest ever counter-terrorism raids in September last year has pleaded guilty to attempting to make funds available to Islamic State.
Lawyers for Omarjan Azari told the central local court on Wednesday the 22-year-old Guildford man had withdrawn an earlier plea of not guilty, following a day of evidence from a former associate who had agreed to become a Crown witness.
Two other charges Azari was facing, of making funds available to a terrorist organisation, have been withdrawn by the Crown. Azari is awaiting trial on another charge of attempting to commit a terrorist act.
The court heard on Wednesday that a US$9,000 money transfer by the Crown witness to Isis — stymied after the man’s mother discovered the cash in his cargo shorts — was intended “to help get people from Pakistan into Syria as fighters”.
There was heavy security in the courtroom as the man, whose name has been suppressed, gave evidence against Azari, who is accused of supplying him with the money and directing him to send it to an account in Peshawar, Pakistan.
The man said he was “somewhat” frightened when his mother discovered the money in the pockets of his shorts as she tidied his room. “I said it was not my money,” he told them, according to a police interview.
“It was a friend from university’s whose parents have gone overseas. He wanted me to send this money to his parents.”
Six weeks later, in September 2014, the man’s house was raided as part of the largest counter-terrorism raids in Australian history. His father arranged for him to meet a lawyer and he was soon granted immunity from prosecution to testify against Azari.
“I sought legal advice. I had options put in front of me. I chose one of those options,” he said.
He told police Azari had told him “the boys chip in money for charity from time to time” and the money, which included three payments totalling more than $15,000, was “to help get people from Pakistan into Syria as fighters”, according to a police interview.
At the time he was “hanging out, eating meals” with a group of men he had met at Parramatta mosque, including Azari, the court heard.
The others in the group, who would meet for Friday night prayers and then go to the nearby Westfield shopping centre, included several other men who have been raided or charged as part of Operation Appleby, an ongoing counter-terrorism investigation.
He told police the group were “openly and frankly discussing their beliefs, which were affiliated with Isis”. Azari also allegedly “spoke about his contacts in Syria”, including Mohammed Baryalei, a senior Australian Isis recruiter believed to have been killed in September 2014.
Azari “was happy whenever Isis was reported to have had a victory”, the man told police.
He also claimed Azari and a man he knew as “Ibrahim” — allegedly 26-year-old Ali Al-Talebi — had made “a personal oath of allegiance to Isis” at Parramatta mosque, and that he had witnessed a phone call between Azari and Baryalei.
He told the court Ibrahim had given him a 10-page booklet advocating jihad and fighting with Isis in Syria. “I think the views of the author were misguided,” he said on Wednesday.
But he conceded he did not throw out the document, filing it away in his room instead.
Under examination by Azari’s barrister, Steven Boland, the man denied knowing at the time the money was intended to fund Isis fighters.
“I was told details of the transaction, a recipient,” he said.
“You didn’t ask … where the money was going to and why?” Boland asked.
“I just didn’t think much of it at the time,” he replied. “I was told it isn’t illegal.”
Azari will be sentenced in the district court in January.
The hearing continues.
