(ABC-Australia) An influential former Islamic State supporter who was released from a supervision order last year was questioned in Wednesday’s police raids on an alleged terrorism network involving a group of Sydney boys.
Excerpts from a police warrant seen by ABC Investigations show self-styled preacher Wassim Fayad, 56, was among two men and 12 boys targeted in the raids across south-west Sydney, as part of an investigation triggered by the stabbing of a bishop last week.
Five boys, aged 14 to 17, faced a children’s court on Thursday charged with a range of offences, including conspiring to prepare or plan for a terrorist act.
Fayad spent seven years in jail until 2020 after being convicted of a failed ATM ram raid, the whipping of a Muslim convert and being an accessory to an attempted shooting murder at a gay sex club.
