Thirty-three-year-old Omar Succarieh’s terrorism case in the Supreme Court was due to begin this week in Brisbane, but he is being sentenced instead after a plea deal with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions saw the original charges downgraded.
Succarieh was arrested in September 2014 when Australian Federal Police raided his Islamic bookshop in Logan, south of Brisbane, and other premises.
He pleaded guilty to four charges under the Crimes (Foreign Incursions and Recruitment) Act 1978 last week.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years prison. Succarieh has already spent 783 days in custody.
The prosecution in its ‘Summary of Facts’ states Succarieh, “supported the overthrow of the Assad regime through armed hostilities and the establishment in its place of a state governed by Islamic law”.
“The defendant believed that he, and other Muslims, had a religious duty to fight against the those who sought to oppress Muslims and this provided part of the motivation for the Defendant’s offending.”
Two charges related to providing his brother Abraham Succarieh in early 2014 with US$43,400 (A$57000) for “supporting or promoting the commission of an offence under section 6 of the Crimes (Foreign Incursions and Recruitment) Act 1978 namely the engagement by those persons in hostile activities in the foreign state of Syria, in particular in engaging in armed hostilities in Syria”.
The Statement of Facts said in intercepted phone conversations, Succarieh was told by his by his brother Abraham, “Tell them it’s going to be going in quarters… Four people that you know… It’s me, Struggle, Saiful, Bilal, that’s four.”
During today's hearing Justice Roslyn Atkinson suppressed the man's name, known as ‘G’, who also received A$7,700 from Succarieh for travel to Syria.
Succarieh pleaded guilty to another two charges of “commissioning of an offence under section 6 of the Crimes (Foreign Incursions and Recruitment) Act 1978 namely facilitating the arrangements for the safe passage” of another Queensland-based man to enter Syria to “engage in hostile activities”, early in 2014.
The man, whose name has been suppressed by the court but is known as ‘G’, also received A$7,700 from Succarieh for travel to Syria.
In the “Summary of Facts” the prosecution said Succarieh, “discussed and made arrangements with Abraham Succarieh for ‘G’ to join his group of fellow Australian Muslims”.
In a statement to SBS News last week, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions said "plea of guilty followed charge negotiations between Federal Prosecutors and lawyers acting for Mr Succarieh in accordance with the Prosecution Policy of the Commonwealth”.
Succarieh had faced two terrorism charges that 2014 he ”intentionally made funds available to a terrorist organisation, namely Jabhat al-Nusra, knowing that organisation was a terrorist organisation" under Part 5.3 of the Commonwealth Crimes Code.
The sentencing hearing is set down for two days.
