A 20-YEAR-OLD man and a 16-year-old girl have been arrested in Sydney on suspicion of financing the Islamic State terror group.
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The girl and a 20-year-old man were arrested in the western Sydney suburb of Guildford in the morning and were due to be charged during the day, New South Wales state police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said.
The pair are expected to be charged with financing terrorism, which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years’ jail.
Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said the latest arrests were not connected to any threat of an imminent attack inside the country.
Share with Us – We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism. Police say they have been interested in him for some time.
“And today’s arrest hasn’t altered that position”, Commissioner Burn said.
“Whether or not they know what they are doing is the issue that we have to continue to investigate and try to unravel, whether they know that what the fund that they are raising is going to be used for”.
Deputy Commissioner Burn said she could not go into how the money was raised.
She said the girl was still at school, but would not speculate on whether her family members were on the police’s radar.
“We’ve taken proactive action on some charges so that it doesn’t lead to something further on down the track”.
He is the 14th and final person to be put before the courts as a result of the mass arrests, police said. “We will disrupt to ensure the safety of the community, and follow that up with thorough investigations to identify criminal behavior”, Deputy Commissioner Phelan said.
In September 2014, police shot dead a Melbourne teenager after he stabbed two counter-terrorism officers.
Operation Appleby is an ongoing operation investigating people suspected of being involved in domestic acts of terrorism, foreign incursions into Syria and Iraq and the funding of terrorist organisations.
The pair were to face one charge each of getting funds to, from or for a terrorist organization.
The police will be alleging that today’s activities are “a new offence”.
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Police allege the group targeted in the raids may have been behind a series of terrorist plots, including the murder of Mr Cheng.
