Victoria capital ‘not hub of terror’

THE Victorian Government has rejected suggestions Melbourne is Australia’s “terror central”, with Premier Daniel Andrews saying evil is everywhere. Police on Tuesday charged three men who were allegedly planning to use at least one semiautomatic gun to shoot as many people as possible. The plot is one of a string of threats foiled or dealt with by police and security organisations since 2014. Asked why Melbourne was “terror central”, Mr Andrews (pictured) said: “This evil manifests itself in lots of different places across our nation.” “We know this is a very real issue. Very serious threats. No getting around that,” he said. The Premier pointed to the creation of Victoria’s counterterrorism command after Labor was elected four years ago. “We saw the results of that work yesterday,” he told Nine Network yesterday. Hanifi Halis, 21, and brothers Samed Eriklioglu, 26, and Ertunc Eriklioglu, 30, are in custody after each being charged on Tuesday with one count of preparing or planning for a terrorist act. They were arrested during a series of raids across suburban northern Melbourne and were remanded in custody after facing Melbourne Magistrates Court. Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther from the counter-terror command said yesterday the events of the past fortnight motivated the trio to act, inspired by ISIS.

“Sadly we had the event in Bourke St and the James Gargasoulas trial and those events plus the ISIS propaganda machine has quite energised them towards committing an act in Melbourne,” he told the Nine Network.

“There is no doubt that inspiration obviously for these kind of acts is drawn from other sources. Al-Qaeda and ISIS have not come away from their propaganda machine and they have pushed hard in the last three years and that is not looking to stop any time soon.”

Mr Guenther said police now had to trawl through large amounts of information to identify details about the plot.

“This is really just the start of the investigation from the joint counter-terrorism team. They have many, many hours ahead of them in terms of this investigation,” he said.

The trio returns to court in April.