Jurors in the Sydney terror plotters trial may have been "angry and fearful" and therefore biased after they were followed to their cars, an appeal hearing has been told.
Large-scale publicity given to a Melbourne-based terrorist case also led to flaws in the 2008/2009 trial of the five men, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal has heard.
Mohamed Ali Elomar, Khaled Cheikho, his nephew Moustafa Cheikho, Abdul Rakib Hasan and Mohammed Omar Jamal were jailed for maximum terms of between 23 and 28 years in 2010.
All five are appealing their convictions.
Tim Game, SC, representing Hasan, told the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Tuesday that just a few days into the 10-month trial at Parramatta in November 2008, four jurors claimed they were followed to their vehicles in the car park.
Days after that incident, a female juror noticed a woman standing behind her car with a notepad, Mr Game said.
The juror reported it, saying she believed the woman was writing down her number plate.
Mr Game said the juror told court security later that "I'm not normally paranoid but this did cause me to park in a different spot from then on."
The court heard the woman was a partner of one of the accused and she was never allowed into the court room again.
Mr Game said this demonstrated the jury was biased and that the jurors may have been "angry and fearful".
In his grounds of appeal, Hasan has claimed "the trial judge erred and the trial therefore miscarried, in declining to discharge the jury after the car park incident."
Hasan claims the trial judge also erred in admitting footage of the ABC's The 7.30 Report interview with Abdul Nasser Benbrika as evidence.
Benbrika, Australia's first convicted terrorist leader, was jailed for 27 years for terrorism offences including planning attacks against targets in Melbourne in February 2009.
"The trial miscarried by reason of large scale publicity concerning the Melbourne proceedings," the documents said.
Benbrika and the other men planned attacks at the 2005 AFL Grand Final at the MCG, railway stations and other public places.
The five Sydney men were found guilty of conspiring to commit an act or acts in preparation for a terrorist act between July 2004 and November 2005.
The plot included stockpiling firearms, ammunition, chemicals and laboratory equipment.
The men also had recipes for making explosives, as well as other instructional material including the "Sniper Handbook".
The appeal hearing continues on Wednesday.
