The father and uncle of an Australian terrorist, who are both accused of bribing Iraqi officials, won't be able to travel overseas after an unsuccessful application to have their bail changed.
Mamdouh Elomar, and his brother Ibrahim Elomar, strongly deny offering a $1 million bribe to win contracts for their construction company Lifese in Iraq.
They were both put on conditional bail, which included surrendering their passports, after being charged.
They applied for a bail variation in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday with lawyer Greg James QC saying they needed to travel overseas for face to face meetings.
Justice Richard Button denied the application, finding there were unacceptable risks the wealthy businessmen would not return.
Mamdouh is the father of Islamic State terrorist Mohamed Elomar, who has been photographed holding up the severed heads of victims.
The men wanted to travel to several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, China and Malaysia to conduct business of behalf of their companies - Lifese and Cloudy Bay Sustainable Forestry.
Lifese, the court heard, has an average annual turnover of $30 million and Cloudy Bay nets about $5 million.
The prosecution said it would be easy for the men to establish themselves overseas, which presented an unacceptable risk they would fail to appear at future court dates.
But Mr James argued conditions, like monitoring, could offset the court's possible concern and allow his clients to continue the face to face meetings necessary for their work.
"They shouldn't be shut out from that," he said.
"The business would not be able to operate."
While Justice Button found the businesses could be "restricted, perhaps damaged," he denied their application to vary bail conditions and return their passports.
"There is a concern about whether or not these men would return to this country and face this serious charge," he said.
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