A sword seized during last month’s counter-terror raids in Sydney has turned out to be plastic and a common religious item, it has been revealed.
Police removed the sword from a Marsfield home in Sydney’s north-west during pre-dawn terror raids on September 18. More than 800 officers were involved.
Mustafa Dirani, 21, whose home was raided as part of Operation Appleby, told Fairfax Media the sword was common in Shiite Muslim households. He said his parents bought the sword from a Sydney night market and it has been a decorative item for years.
Dirani’s family are also Afghan-born Shiite Muslims; not Sunni Muslims, which is the religious sect most Islamic State militants belong to.
Sheikh Zaid Alsalami, leader of the Nabi Akram Islamic Centre in Granville told Fairfax the symbolic nature of the sword is similar to that of the Christian crucifix.
"It basically denotes the sword that was carried by Imam Ali, the first Shia Imam," he said. "The Prophet handed Imam Ali this particular sword [in a battle]. It's not anything of any ritual value, it's just a reminder of something that represents the relation that Imam Ali had with the Prophet."
When asked about the sword, the Australian Federal Police refused to comment on details.
"The AFP does not comment on ongoing investigations," a spokeswoman told Fairfax.
The Sydney operation targeted homes across Beecroft, Bellavista, Guildford, Merrylands, Northmead, Wentworthville, Marsfield, Westmead, Castle Hill, Revesby, Bass Hill and Regents Park.
Nine of 15 people were arrested during the raids. Omarjan Azari, 22, of Guildford, was the first to be charged and faced court accused of preparing for a terrorist act. He was refused bail.
Another family caught up in the counter-terrorism operation is reportedly set to launch legal action, claiming to have been unfairly targeted.
The brothers, aged 15 and 14, and their mother have told Fairfax Media they were mistreated as police took 12 hours to search their home in Sydney's southwest but found nothing.
Using the name Mohamed, the older of the brothers says he was woken at 4.30am by men in balaclavas who bashed the door in and dragged his mother out of bed without giving her a chance to cover herself.
Mohamed claims she was also punched because she tried to resist, and that he and his brother were handcuffed during the ordeal.
The paper says the family of three will launch a civil suit in the NSW Supreme Court this week.
Their home was one of 16 raided by state and federal police before dawn on September 18, but they were not detained or charged and they still have not been told why they were raided.
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