Four Melbourne men have been charged with accessing and distributing \u201cISIS propaganda\u201d.<\/p>\n
Australian Federal Police executed four search warrants across homes in Melbourne\u2019s Roxburgh Park, Clyde North and Meadow Heights on Thursday, following an investigation dating back to November 2024.<\/p>\n
Five individuals were arrested in the raids, with police seizing mobile phones and other electronic devices.<\/p>\n
Police later charged two men from Roxburgh Park, 21-year-old Mohammad Ahmadzai and 20-year-old Azan Syed, as well as 29-year-old Sulaiman Sarwar and 19-year-old Adian Sarwari from Clyde North.<\/p>\n
All four have been charged with possession of violent extremist material – an offence carrying a maximum five-year sentence.<\/p>\n
A fifth Meadow Heights man, aged 21, was released pending further inquiries.<\/p>\n
AFP Counter Terrorism Commander Paula Hudson said the National Security Investigations Team had moved to arrest the individuals to keep the community safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe allege these men were actively engaging in the sharing of this material inspired by ISIS, a terrorist organisation responsible for mass killings, and violent religious persecution,\u201d Commander Hudson said.<\/p>\n
The AFP said the investigation had begun when the Australian Border Force located \u201csuspicious content\u201d during a routine search of Mr Syed’s luggage when he returned from Turkey in November 2024.<\/p>\n
The matter was reported to the AFP and Mr Syed\u2019s phone was later seized.<\/p>\n
The ABF subsequently intercepted Mr Ahmadza at Melbourne Airport ahead of his department to Turkey, seizing his phone for further examination.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be alleged forensic analysis of the devices revealed the men had been sending, sharing and receiving suspected violent extremist material (VEM), which included images and videos of previous terrorist attacks and other ISIS propaganda,\u201d the AFP said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The four men appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates\u2019 Court on Friday, where they were bailed under strict conditions, including being subject to a curfew.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, it was revealed that a search of the Sarwari\u2019s Clyde North home had uncovered a beanie with Arabic writing a and a machete in a storage shed.<\/p>\n
A search of the 29-year-old\u2019s phone allegedly showed he had been sharing links to violent extremist videos as recently as March and April this year.<\/p>\n
AFP senior constable Keyleigh Edward told the court these had included videos showing \u201cthe execution of unknown people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Counter Terrorism Commander Hudson said the AFP had acted early to prevent any violence occurring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that intervening early helps to ensure individuals are disrupted before they reach the most serious levels of offending and prevent any potential for escalation to violence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe disruption sends a clear message \u2013 the AFP, together with our state, Commonwealth and international law enforcement partners are watching, and we will not tolerate any type of hatred in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australian Border Force Commander Operations Victoria Clinton Sims said the investigation was another example of the integral role the ABF had in protecting Australia\u2019s community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis operation demonstrates how intelligence and border capabilities are combined to identify individuals of concern and take coordinated action at the border and beyond,\u201d Commander Sims said.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtecting Australia\u2019s border is central to protecting our national security, and we will continue to work with our partners to disrupt terrorism-related activity wherever it emerges.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four Melbourne men have been charged with accessing and distributing \u201cISIS propaganda\u201d. Australian Federal Police executed four search…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[103,8794,4034,8795,260,8796,1047,8312],"class_list":{"0":"post-7488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-melbourne","8":"tag-afp","9":"tag-extresmist","10":"tag-isis","11":"tag-islamic","12":"tag-melbourne","13":"tag-muslim","14":"tag-police","15":"tag-terrorism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}