Why did he grin? Could it be because he will be 29 at most when he is released, and can resume his jihad then? After all, nothing will be done while he is in prison to disabuse him of his jihadist sentiments. Any such effort would be “Islamophobic.”
“Man sentenced after planning terrorist attacks on Australian targets,” by Jenny Noyes, Sydney Morning Herald, October 11, 2021 (thanks to Henry):
A Sydney man who had “grandiose” plans to commit a terrorist act in Australia before attempting to travel to Pakistan to join Islamic State fighters on the front lines has been sentenced to just over seven years’ jail for the terrorist offences.
Isaac El Matari, now 22, admitted to being a member of Islamic State and pleaded guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to two charges: planning terrorist attacks on Australian soil, and preparing to engage in foreign fighting with the terrorist group in Afghanistan. The maximum penalty for each offence is life in prison.
In March 2019, El Matari went on two shopping trips to a hunting and technical supplies store in St Marys, checking out binoculars and ammunition before purchasing a cream-coloured tactical vest he took home and wore around his apartment building before placing it in a suitcase he intended to take to Pakistan.
Over the course of the following six months, authorities would intercept a number of conversations where he discussed the purchase and importation of firearms, ammunition, tactical clothing and explosives. He also inquired about the locations of potential targets in Australia, including a military barracks.
In one encrypted conversation with someone in Lebanon, El Matari talked about starting “a state out here in the bush”.
He told the person he thought IS supporters in Australia were “cowards and not truly committed” and discussed choosing targets: “I know what targets will make people scared and will make people aware and will convey our message.”
In another conversation, he threatened to blow himself up “to obtain publicity” and “again described, in somewhat vague terms, how acts of terrorism could be carried out in Australia”, Justice Peter Garling said on Monday.
The court heard El Matari had been caught attempting to join Islamic State fighters on a prior trip to Lebanon, and spent nine months in prison there before he was released in June 2018 and returned to Australia….
In September 2019, a search of the cell adjacent to his own turned up a three-page letter El Matari had written to his inmate, where he described Australia’s vulnerability to insurgents and proposed using “a small, enclosed battalion to exploit the exposed landscape” while maintaining propaganda-focussed cells hidden among the urban civilian population….
Justice Garling sentenced El Matari to a maximum seven years and four months in prison, with a non-parole period of five years and six months.
As he heard his fate, El Matari, watching remotely from Goulburn, grinned and covered his face with his hands….
RichardL says
al Matari. With that name, what other than a jihadi could this ugly mutt become?
Keys says
His sentence should have been a visit from the ‘grin reaper’.
Steve says
It’s the…………unibrower.
tim gallagher says
I just heard an interview with the police minister in New South Wales, David Elliott, on this sentence by this clown, Justice Peter Garling, and it sounded as though there will be appeals against the soft sentence. The minister was annoyed about the sentence. The radio presenter said that the Muslim would be terrorist’s sentence was 7 years, but he could be out of jail in 3 years. Apparently Justice Garling said that this El Matari character had done a lot of talking, but didn’t seem as if he would actually carry out any actions. The interview mentioned another Muslim ISIS supporter who was trying to go to Bangladesh back in 2016 to carry out terrorist attacks and Garling sentenced him to 5 years, but he could out of jail in 12 months the radio presenter said. On that case, Garling said that the 24 year old would terrorist was “immature”. Extraordinary to call a 24 year old an immature person. Some of these judges and magistrates are way out of touch with reality.
Keith O says
I don’t know who was the bigger idiot Tim, the so called judge or El Matari? But then this goes some way to proving the adage about “grinning like the village idiot”!
His actions were a special kinda stupid, both of them for that matter!
tim gallagher says
Yes, Keith O, some of these unbelievably lenient sentences are insane. There seem to be too many incredibly soft judges, like this Garling character, around. They do live on some other planet, but, unfortunately, their idiotic decisions, when dealing with dangerous would be Muslim terrorists, could cost people’s lives. i think it is a very strange thing to say a 24 year old is “immature”. I think most people would think that, by 24 years old, most people are reasonably mature adults. Anyway, here’s hoping that the government does appeal and they get a change of El Matari’s sentence.
gravenimage says
+1
tim gallagher says
Thanks for the +1, gravenimage. Do you get the same sort of big reductions in sentences in the USA? Maybe sometimes out here the sentences can be reduced for good behaviour, and I guess that happens everywhere to some degree. Sometimes The reductions do surprise me a lot. The radio presenter, who is a reasonably wishy washy guy I often find, vaguely to the left, (his name is Ben Fordham) was very angry and fired up about these decisions by Garling. I was surprised that the 5 years could end up being 12 months and the 7 years could be 3 years, but Fordham would have it right. Garling is obviously one of these very left wing type judges. And saying a 24 year old is “immature” sounds completely ridiculous.
gravenimage says
Tim, things are not generally quite as bad here as in Australia, and certainly better than in much of Western Europe.
But here it tends to vary by state–conservative “red” states tend to hand down stiffer sentences than do leftist “blue” states–but even in traditionally conservative states sentences seem to have gotten weaker over all–and sometimes you run accross some unhinged judge who doesn’t even give a slap on the wrist.
gravenimage says
Australia: Muslim grins as he is sentenced to seven years in prison for plotting jihad massacres
…………..
Is this Jihadist thug going to be deported after serving his sentence? That wouldn’t be too bad–but it probably will not happen.