New South Wales police were running an online sting against 16-year-old charged with terrorism offences while at the same time working to “deradicalise” him through an official program, it has emerged.
Experts who advise the government and police on violent extremism say the revelations are a “huge risk to the integrity” of the deradicalisation programs, likening it to officers posing as drug dealers outside a police-run drug rehabilitation facility.
Guardian Australia understands that police will allege the Sydney teenager – accused of trying to source a gun for use in a terrorist attack – had discussed obtaining the weapon with officers posing online as supporters of Muslim extremism. The alleged communication took place some time in the last week and triggered his arrest on Sunday afternoon.
It is also understood that for the past year the boy, who is from Auburn in the city’s west, has been in an official deradicalisation program involving regular welfare checks by police and referral to counsellors and religious authorities.
The boy has denied the charges, which carry a maximum life sentence, and will make a bail application on Friday.
Anne Aly, a specialist who was consulted by police on the programs, said the boy’s case was “the perfect example” of why deradicalisation should be run by community groups at arm’s length from law enforcement.
“I do not blame the police because it actually puts them in a very precarious situation, where on one side they’re doing deradicalisation, which is social and community-based, and necessarily so; and on the other side there’s the law enforcement aspect.
“You’re putting police in a position where they have to be both, and obviously the law enforcement comes first,” she said.
In December last year a 15-year-old, also understood to be the subject of police deradicalisation efforts, was arrested and charged with terrorism offences in relation to a plot allegedly hatched more than a year before.
Aly said both cases “show the tension between a law enforcement program, where the program object is monitoring, arrest and detainment, and deradicalisation, where the primary purpose should be to disengage and reintegrate”.
“It’s a huge risk to the integrity of the programs ... like putting someone in drug rehabilitation and then putting drugs in front of them,” she said.
The head of a community intervention research and support hub at the Australian National University, Clarke Jones, agreed “the police can’t perform these dual roles”.
“They’ve either got a willingness or intent to help him, and if they feel they’re struggling to get results in terms of engagement, then they need to change tack,” he said.
“Do they want to help him, or do they want to prosecute him?”
NSW police declined to comment.
