Australian top cricketer’s brother arrested over fake terror ‘hit list’
sydney — The brother of a top Australian cricketer was charged by police on Tuesday for framing a love rival as the author of a hit list that sparked a major counterterrorism investigation.
Arsalan Khawaja, 39 — brother of leading test batsman Usman — is due to appear in court on charges of forgery and attempting to pervert justice.
For months he appears to have convinced Australian police that his 26-year-old university colleague Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen was embroiled in a plot to kill then prime minister Malcom Turnbull.
The Sri Lankan-born PhD student spent a month in solitary confinement at a remote supersecure prison, where he was questioned about targets, not just including Australia’s then leader, but reportedly the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the city’s iconic Opera House. Nizamdeen was eventually released in September, when police figured out the script did not match his handwriting. The charges were later dropped.
“What we will be alleging is that he (Nizamdeen) was set up in a planned and calculated manner. Motivated, in part, by a personal grievance,” New South Wales assistant commissioner Mick Willing told reporters.
Willing added that police believe Khawaja orchestrated the set up and may have been motivated by a dispute over a woman.
“We will allege that that is part of the process. But as you can appreciate, the matter is before the court, so we can’t go into much detail,” said Willing. —