Brother Of 2018 Melbourne Knife Attacker Jailed 10 Years For Terror Plotting - Reports

The brother of a terrorist attacker who stabbed three people in the Australian city of Melbourne in November 2018, killing a cafe owner, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of planning an attack in the city's Federation Square, national media reported on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2020) The brother of a terrorist attacker who stabbed three people in the Australian city of Melbourne in November 2018, killing a cafe owner, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of planning an attack in the city's Federation Square, national media reported on Thursday.

Supreme Court Justice John Champion ordered the defendant, Ali Khalif Shire Ali to serve a minimum of seven-and-a-half years before being eligible for parole, the country's ABC broadcaster reported.

"You wanted to intimidate the Australian community ... because of what you saw as the Australian Government's complicity in the persecution of Muslims overseas," the broadcaster quoted Champion as saying.

According to the broadcaster, Ali pleaded guilty to one count of preparing a terrorist attack in May 2019 and was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years incarceration.

According to prosecutors, he had planned to use a truck during an attack in the center of Melbourne three years ago, and was arrested after a police operation in November 2017, the broadcaster reported.

Ali also attempted to buy an AK-47 assault rifle from suppliers who turned out to be undercover police officers, the broadcaster stated.

He is the brother of Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, who was allegedly inspired by Islamic State (terrorist group, banned in Russia) to launch an attack in central Melbourne in November 2018. He crashed a car full of gas cylinders in the city before attacking pedestrians with a knife. One of the pedestrians died from their injuries and Ali was shot dead by police at the scene.