Foreign fighters could do much worse than what Adam Brookman did in supporting a group fighting against Syria's "barbaric" Assad regime, his lawyers have told a Melbourne judge.
The father-of-five spent nearly six years behind bars before last month pleading guilty to performing acts in support or promotion of the commission of an offence under foreign incursion laws.
Brookman, now in his 40s, went to Syria in 2014, telling police he intended to use his healthcare experience to help the local Muslim community.
He had trained first as a nurse before becoming a paramedic, working with Ambulance Victoria and in hospital emergency departments.
Australian authorities first became aware of Brookman's activities in Syria - which included providing medical supplies and performing reconnaissance for Chechen fighters - through a phone call his brother made to the national security hotline.
He was concerned that Brookman had been posting photos online that appeared to show him in a war zone.
Prosecutors say Brookman was initially providing medical services in the Aleppo area and later joined a Chechen group.
He had enough training to perform rudimentary guard duty and weapon maintenance with them, while also providing medical services, prosecutor Nicholas Robinson QC said.
In July 2014 he travelled on a reconnaissance mission with them.
"All my worldly possessions fit in this one corner," he posted on social media with a photo of items including two guns.
"I came into this world with nothing, I'll leave this world with nothing."
Another picture showed a cat alongside a pistol and two hand grenades.
"And what is a mujahid without his cat? This one comes fully prepared for any eventuality," he wrote.
He described driving at night without lights down a road "like Swiss cheese" while being shot at by fighter jets, saying his fatih had never felt so high and he had never felt so good.
Brookman's barrister Peter Morrissey SC said while supporting foreign fighters was against the law in Australia, Brookman's activities were very different to if he had supported a terrorist organisation such as Islamic State.
The Chechen group he was involved with was fighting against Syria's "barbaric" Assad regime, about which the Australian government had noted "grave concerns".
Mr Morrissey said that tempered the gravity of Brookman's offending.
"If the Chechens were seeking to resist Hezbollah taking over a town and punishing its inhabitants, that's different to him going somewhere with ISIS to massacre the entire population," he said.
"You could do much worse than what he is proven to have done."
Brookman left Syria in mid-2015, using smugglers to travel to Turkey where he contacted Australian authorities and negotiated his return on the basis he would be arrested on his arrival.
He has been in custody since his return to Melbourne in July 2015.
His lawyers are hoping for Brookman's immediate release after sentencing, and say he hopes to return to his healthcare career on his release.
The hearing before Justice Jane Dixon is continuing.
