A former Qantas baggage handler wanted in Lebanon over the bombing of a McDonald's restaurant appeared in court here Wednesday charged under Australia's new counter-terror laws with inciting terrorism on the Internet.
Bilal Khazal, 34, who has been under investigation for 10 years, was arrested after a morning raid on his home by police and agents of the intelligence agency ASIO.
Documents including his own book of rules for holy war and a computer hard drive were seized from the house in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba, the centre of Australia's 300,000-strong Islamic community.
Police say the book, "Provisions In The Rules of Jihad - Short Wise Rules and Organisational Instructions Which Is The Concern of Every Fighter and Mujahid Against the Infidels," which is printed in Arabic and published on the Internet, advocates among other things the killing of "infidels".
Khazal is the first person charged with collecting or making documents likely to facilitate terrorist acts under legislation introduced in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001 and in Bali in October, 2002.
Heavily bearded Khazal was granted 10,000 dollars (7,000 US) bail on strict conditions after a brief appearance in Sydney's Central Local Court.
Police said his arrest followed the capture in Lebanon last week of Sydney-based Muslim Saleh Jamal, who had told Lebanese police he received money from Khazal to help him flee Australia.
Jamal, who had a record of drug convictions, had been awaiting trial for a series of shootings but fled with a false passport after being freed on bail by a court here.
Khazal was also alleged by police to have had false passports in his possession but magistrate Les Brennan granted bail, saying the prosecution had failed to provide enough substance to overturn a presumption in favour of bail.
But Brennan conceded the charge was a very serious one.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock told Federal Parliament Wednesday the charge was unprecedented and carries a maximum penalty of 15 years jail.
He said the arrest followed a lengthy collaborative investigation by a joint counter-terrorism team involving officers from the federal police, ASIO and New South Wales state police.
Khazal's lawyer Chris Murphy told the court his client, a married father-of-two, was an upstanding citizen with no criminal record.
He said Khazal had been interviewed by police up to 70 times over the past few years and they had failed to confirm any of their suspicions because the only thing he was guilty of was having political views and "cutting and pasting" other people's work.
Murphy described the accusation against his client as "too silly for words", claiming he had been arrested to fulfil a political purpose.
Khazal's face is well known here as the subject of television and newspaper investigations.
A Beirut court sentenced him in absentia to 10 years for helping finance a bombing campaign and he is alleged by the US CIA to have links to the Al-Qaeda terror network.