As five Sydney men begin jail sentences of up to 28 years for offences related to terrorism, police warn the community cannot become complacent about future threats.
Sentencing the men in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday to between 23 and 28 years in jail, Justice Anthony Whealy said their motivation had been "an intolerant and inflexible fundamentalist religious conviction".
Supporters of the men said the sentence was too harsh, complaining that murderers are given less jail time.
"He was not planning any mass murder or terrorist attack," one supporter said of one of the convicted men.
"He is no extremist; the only extremists are people like ASIO, they go way deep."
Last October the men were each found guilty of conspiring to commit an act or acts in preparation for a terrorist act between July 2004 and November 2005.
NSW Police welcomed the sentencing, with the commander of the counter-terrorism and special tactics command, Assistant Commissioner Peter Dein, describing it as "a very significant result for NSW".
"This was a very lengthy operation," Mr Dein told reporters in Sydney after the sentencing.
Australia's greatest terrorism threat was along the east coast, Mr Dein said.
"Before the arrests back in November 2005 there was some 18 months of investigation between the NSW Police, Australian Federal Police, with assistance from ASIO and the NSW Crime Commission.
"The operation in November resulted in some 400 police being deployed for the purpose of doing a number of raids and making arrests.
"On a number of occasions there were up to 100 investigators and support staff involved in this investigation."
And while Mr Dein is confident there will be no further arrests or charges in connection with this matter, he said it is essential that Australia remain alert to the threat of terrorism.
"Complacency is a very important word in the business of counter-terrorism," he said.
"It is something that we need to be very careful about in Australia.
"There is a tendency, and I don't blame people, for starting to think that we can relax as a result of all the work that's been done, the arrests have been made and the prosecutions occurring. But we still need to remain vigilant.
"It is an ongoing problem. We are on top of it but it is necessary to make sure we do not become complacent."
"We are working on a 24/7 basis for the purpose of investigating all of the information we receive in relation to the potential threat," he said.
"That does involve a lot of work, we have a lot of resources. In my particular command I have in excess of 200 people working full-time on counter-terrorism operations ...
"Yes, it's something that we need to be very careful about not to become complacent and we need to be able to spend all the time and money and resources to make sure we are following every particular lead down every particular burrow, otherwise we might miss something."
The men sentenced on Monday are aged 25, 40, 32, 44 and 36.
Justice Whealy outlined their stockpiling of chemicals and firearms, as well as describing the instructional, extremist or fundamentalist material found at their homes.
Share
