Aust who ‘wanted to help’ Syrian rebels sent to jail
AUSTRALIA: A western Sydney man who travelled to Syria intending to fight with rebel groups against Bashar al-Assad’s regime has been sentenced to a minimum 21⁄2 years behind bars.
Mehmet Biber was fuelled by YouTube videos of women and children killed in Syria’s civil war when he ignored pleas from his family and boarded a plane willing and ready to fight in July 2013.
But he says he never made it to the front line, instead spending much of his time at a rural guesthouse far from conflict, where he kicked a football with children and grew ‘‘extremely’’ bored.
Biber, then 20, was among a group of young Australian men, supported by terrorist recruiter Hamdi Alqudsi, who travelled to Syria via Turkey to join insurgent group Ahrar al-Sham.
He became disillusioned and left the group after several months, returning to Australia after he was caught in Turkey with an expired visa in February 2014.
Biber was arrested during counter-terrorism raids in Sydney in 2016. He pleaded guilty in February to entering a foreign state with intent to engage in armed hostile activity, and had been in prison on remand. Justice Christine Adamson yesterday sentenced Biber to a maximum four years and nine months in jail, taking into account time already spent in custody. He will be eligible for release in May 2019.
It was the first time the foreign incursion offence had been prosecuted in Australia.
Biber said during sentencing that he had been motivated to go to Syria after he grew distressed by internet videos of the civil war, often watching for an hour a day.
‘‘Seeing images of women and children being pulled out of rubble . . . I remember some of the videos were very, very horrific,’’ he said.
‘‘I wanted to do something to help.’’ – Fairfax