Muslims jailed for planning massacre at Australian barracks

Dec 16, 2011, 6:44 GMT

Sydney - Three Australian Muslims were jailed for 18 years by a Melbourne court Friday for plotting to attack a Sydney army barracks.

Saney Aweys, 27; Wissam Fattal, 35; and Nayef El Sayed, 28, were each ordered to spend 13 and a half years behind bars before being eligible for parole.

The trio of Somali and Lebanese descent were arrested in August 2009 and tried under new laws that make the plotting of terrorist acts a crime.

They had sought the blessing of Muslim leaders in Somalia for their plan to buy weapons and burst into the base and open fire.

Supreme Court Justice Betty King said the men were motivated by their interpretation of Islam and their hatred of the way of life in Australia and remained a danger to the community.

Two more accused co-conspirators were found not guilty at the conviction hearing in December last year.

Fattal was filmed by security agents walking around the boundary of Holsworthy Barracks.

'If I find a way to kill the army, I swear to Allah the great, I'm going to do it,' Fattal told an undercover police officer.

Aweys was recorded claiming that Allah had brought bushfires and drought to Australia to punish its people for being infidels.

'Allah, bring them calamity,' he was recorded as saying.