Five Muslim men were convicted by a Melbourne court of plotting a jihadist attack after stockpiling bomb making instructions and purchasing explosive chemicals to protest Australia's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The five, four of whom are of Lebanese descent and one of Bangladeshi origin, now face possible life sentences after New South Wales State Supreme Court found them guilty of conspiring to commit acts in preparation for a terrorist attack.
The court was told that the men had stored firearms, bomb making chemicals and explosives manufacturing instructions from July 2004 to November 2005, in Australia's largest terrorist conspiracy.
The five were arrested after a sixteen month surveillance which ended in November 2005 and in the same year they went on hunting trips in New South Wales, apparently to test their newly acquired firearms skills.
One of the arrested, according to prosecution, had been trained at a Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist camp in Pakistan. In raids on their homes, police found pictures and videos showing the 9/11 bombing, as well as beheadings and killings carried out by Afghan militants.
Four other men pleaded guilty in the case and were sentenced up to eighteen years in jail.