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The author of a how-to book on waging terrorism argues he was arrested for congratulating a friend for wearing a hijab and suggesting she tell her jailed brother.
Belal Saadallah Khazaal, 51, applied for bail in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday after federal police in April arrested him for allegedly breaching conditions of a control order.
The Sydney man, also known as Bilal Khazal, had been the subject of the order since August 2020 when he finished a 12-year jail term for creating a 110-page terrorism advice book.
The book included content on exploding bombs, shooting down planes and assassinating people such as former US president George W Bush.
Khazaal is accused of trying to indirectly communicate with Ali al-Talebi when speaking to the jailed Islamic State funder’s sister in Sydney on March 30.
But, questioning the strength of the crown case, Khazaal’s lawyer said his client merely commented on the fact he’d congratulated her before al-Talebi could do so.
“It will be submitted a person seeking to congratulate somebody wearing a hijab is not the kind of communications that should be regarded as being associated, in any way whatsoever, with any form of terrorism offence,” Khazaal’s lawyer told the court on Monday.
Two other breaches allegedly occurred two weeks later when Khazaal drove his wife to the sister’s home, and the wife passed an envelope of money to the other woman.
A condition of the control order prevented Khazaal from transferring more than $500 to another person without notifying federal police.
The evidence of Khazaal’s wife was that it was her decision to give the money, it was her money and she had physically handed the money over, the court was told.
The Crown painted a different picture by presenting transcripts of the trio’s alleged car-side conversation.
When the sister suggested she could not take the cash, Khazaal said “it is nothing to do with you, they are not yours”, police allege.
“It this is an agreement between me and him,” he is alleged to have said.
“That’s proof of his intention to contravene the order, irrespective of whose money it was,” Lester Fernandez, for the Crown, said.
He submitted Khazaal’s intentions were also revealed in transcripts of the March 30 conversation with the accused wondering aloud about how “a person” could inform al-Talebi about the hijab praise.
A control order breach didn’t necessarily have to be a terrorism offence, Mr Fernandez added.
Khazaal has offered to submit to effective home detention whilst on bail.
His wife offered her half of a $1.23 million property as surety.
The bail application continues.
Al-Talebi, 31, is serving a minimum nine-year term for attempting to send thousands of dollars to Islamic State in 2014.
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