A Sydney judge has sentenced five men to 23 to 28 years in jail, the maximum punishment for charges relating to terror, after they were found guilty of plotting an attack on Australian soil.
Justice Anthony Whealyimposed non-parole periods of between 17 years and 21 years, saying that none of the men had shown remorse or contrition, or renounced their extremist beliefs.
Justice Whealy added that he believed the possibility of rehabilitation was slim for the men, who reportedly continued to protest their innocence.
Videos showing "brutal, disturbing and graphic" executions of hostages were found at the homes of some of the five Sydney men involved in a terrorist-related plot, a judge has said.
Justice Whealy said it was impossible to imagine any "civilised" person viewing the material.
The judge was outlining some of the extremist or fundamentalist material found at the homes of the five men he will sentence later on Monday in the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta.
Last October, the jury found the men, aged 25 to 44, guilty of conspiring to commit an act or acts in preparation for a terrorist act between July 2004 and November 2005.
During the long-running trial, crown prosecutor Richard Maidment SC said the men were all devout Muslims driven by extremist beliefs to plot violent jihad in retaliation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They spent months working together to acquire chemicals, firearms and ammunition, and extremist literature found in their homes showed they had violent intent, he said.
In court on Monday, Justice Whealy has outlined those actions of the conspirators, including their stockpiling of chemicals, firearms and ammunition.
"One particular feature of this trial was the fact that a considerable volume of extremist material was held by each offender in common with the other conspirators," he said.
The common holding of this vast material was "powerful evidence" that they jointly held extremist views, Justice Whealy said.
Some of the images glorified the September 11 hijackers, he said, and much of the material was designed to invoke empathy and anger in a Muslim viewer.
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