Terror plotter’s appeal rejected

A RADICALISED jihadi jailed for at least 20 years for plotting a CBD terror attack has failed in his bid to reduce his sentence.

Ibrahim Abbas, the ringleader of a homegrown terror squad, had his appeal rejected after the Court of Appeal found his sentence was in fact “quite moderate” in the face of the “bloodthirsty and vicious attack of monumental scale” he had planned in the heart of Melbourne.

Abbas pleaded guilty in February 2018 to planning a terror attack for Christmas 2016 and was sentenced to spend a maximum of 24 years behind bars.

The then-22-year-old, along with his three co-conspirators, had planned to go to centre of the city wearing explosive vests and ram a policeman with a vehicle and steal his gun.

The trio would then shoot and “chop” and kill people with a machete with the aim to “cause as much chaos, destruction, fear (and) bloodshed” as possible, Abbas told police after his arrest in December 2016.

The convicted terrorist launched his appeal last month, arguing his sentence was too harsh and the judge had not given enough weight to his guilty plea and co-operation with investigators following his arrest.

In sentencing Abbas, Supreme Court Justice Andrew Tinney said he wasn’t convinced the plea was evidence of remorse or acceptance of responsibility for his offending.

Justice Tinney said Abbas was far from frank in his police interview, describing a “litany of deliberate lies” and stating he did not give police the “full truth”.

Prosecutors argued the lies were designed to exculpate his co-offenders, Ahmed Mohamed, Abdullah Chaarani and Hatim Moukhaiber, who were found guilty at trial.

Defence lawyer Gideon Boas said it didn’t matter why Abbas confessed, he should ultimately have received a more significant sentence reduction.

Dr Boas said at appeal Justice Tinney placed too much emphasis on Abbas’s lies.

Court of Appeal justices Phillip Priest, Stephen Kaye and Terry Forrest yesterday denied Abbas’s appeal, calling his terror plan an “anathema to the liberal, democratic and tolerant values of Australian society”.

“(He) planned the massacre of innocent, defenceless civilians according to his concept of religious imperatives,” the justices said.

(HE) PLANNED THE MASSACRE OF INNOCENT, DEFENCELESS CIVILIANS ACCORDING TO HIS ... RELIGIOUS IMPERATIVES COURT OF APPEAL JUSTICES