Faheem Khalid Lodhi has become the first Australian convicted in a jury trial of plotting a terrorist bombing campaign in Australia. Lodhi faces the possibility of life in prison. The Australian reported on June 20 that Lodhi, a 36-year-old architect living in Sydney, was found guilty Monday on three charges of planning bombings in 2003 in support of jihad.
Lodhi is the first Australian convicted by a jury under 2002 legislation of planning "an act in preparation for a terrorist act." Conviction on the charge carries life imprisonment.
The jury heard that Lodhi's possible targets were the national electricity grid and Sydney's HMAS Penguin, Victoria Barracks and Holsworthy military bases.
Prosecutors alleged that Lodhi was a key associate of the al Qaida-linked French terror suspect Willie Brigitte, currently in prison in France awaiting trial.
The New South Wales Supreme Court jury heard that Lodhi contacted Brigitte using a telephone registered in a false name and provided Brigitte with a falsely registered telephone.
The jury convicted Lodhi for seeking to procure chemicals for manufacturing homemade explosives and for possessing a handwritten explosives "terrorism manual." The two charges both carry life sentences. The jury also convicted Lodhi of buying electricity grid maps in order to prepare his attacks, which carries a 15-year maximum jail term.
He was acquitted on a fourth charge of downloading aerial photographs of the military bases from the Internet as part of his preparation.
Earlier legal action against Lodhi linked him to the Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-e-Toiba; he supposedly supervised at one of their terrorist training camps, serving as liaison for seven Indonesian militants who trained in urban warfare there.
An Australian Federal Police spokesman said, "The conviction on the three offences sends a very clear message to those involved in terrorism that the Australian Federal Police and New South Wales police joint counter-terrorism team, together with domestic and international law enforcement and security agencies, are determined to counter any attempts of terrorist activities on Australian soil."
