A MELBOURNE teen who plotted to behead a police officer in an Anzac Day terror attack will spend at least seven and a half years behind bars.
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Besim, from Hallam in Melbourne’s south-east, had discussed his plans with a British teenager, who is now serving a minimum five-year jail term after pleading guilty to inciting the Anzac Day terrorist plot.
The investigation revealed that Besim had discussed his intentions with a United Kingdom teenager, who is now serving a five-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to provoking the terrorist plot, Sputniknews reports.
The teenager who had been seeing a moderate imam, would be undergoing a de-radicalization program. “He was just 18 at the time of the offending and is now only 19”, Croucher said, according to a court transcript seen by Reuters.
Justice Croucher said Besim’s plans to kill a law enforcement officer by “deliberating crashing into him with a auto and then to behead him” was “unfathomable” to the vast majority of the community. “I was gonna meet with them then take some heads ahaha”.
The ANZAC Day plot was apparently focused on services in Melbourne or the suburb of Dandenong.
Justice Michael Croucher said the teen’s planned “putrid act” was aimed at advancing violent jihad, intimidating the government and striking fear into the hearts of the wider community.
“That Mr Besim was planning such an outrageous and gruesome act of murder must terrify law enforcement officers across this country, their loved ones and right-thinking members of the community”, Justice Croucher said. The pair had also talked about strapping explosives to a kangaroo, painting it in the colors of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and setting it on police. The man, who appears in evidence tendered to the court under the pseudonym “Illyas”, was identified as Sevdet Besim.
At an earlier hearing, it was revealed that Besim had drafted a martyrdom note for his family in the hours before his arrest.
Sevdet Ramadan Besim, 19, had planned to run down and behead a police officer at an Anzac Day remembrance march in the city in 2015.
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About four hours after outlining his intentions, he was arrested.
