Outrage over 'leniency' for Australian terror suspect

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - The doors of Sydney's Silverwater jail opened early yesterday afternoon to national outrage as a suspected terrorist, already convicted in absentia in Lebanon, walked free on bail.

Bilal Khazal, 34, who has been linked to al Qaeda by America's Central Intelligence Agency, is accused of assembling documents to encourage acts of terrorism, including internet exhortations for an Islamic jihad (holy war) against Australia and other Western countries.

The Lebanon-born former Qantas baggage-handler, who came to Australia as a child, is also accused of helping another terror suspect, Saleh Jamal, jump bail and flee overseas.

Khazal has been convicted in Lebanon of funding the bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in Beirut, although no request for extradition has yet been received by Canberra.

Jamal, who was charged in connection with a shooting attack on the Lakemba, western Sydney, police station in 1998, is also alleged to be connected to al Qaeda and has now been arrested on terrorism charges in Lebanon.

The decision by Sydney Central Local Court on Wednesday to grant Khazal bail of A$10,000 ($11,159) follows the nine-year jail term imposed on British-born Jack Roche for conspiring to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Canberra in 2000.

Roche, a 50-year-old convert to radical Islam, met Osama bin Laden and other senior members of al Qaeda, trained in bomb-making in Afghanistan and returned to Australia with the intention of creating terror cells in the country.

His sentence, which could put him back on the streets within three years, has infuriated senior political and police officials, and is likely to be the subject of an appeal by the federal director of public prosecutions.

The granting of bail to terror suspects and the leniency of Roche's sentence conflicts with the increasingly tough stance Australia has taken on terrorism since the September 11 and Bali bombings.

Federal and state governments have granted broad new powers to police, intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies, and introduced a raft of new laws severely restricting the rights of people suspected of terrorism, or of associating with or having knowledge of terror groups or acts.

This has in turn brought condemnation from civil libertarians, such as that included in the latest annual report of Amnesty International.

But lawmakers have been unmoved, and yesterday began working to remove the right to bail of people suspected of terrorism as both the federal and New South Wales Government prepared appeals against Khazal's bail.

Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said he intended to draft new national laws to prevent bail being granted in such cases, overcoming the long-standing convention that most people accused of criminal charges could presume the right to release on bail.

Ruddock's proposal would prevent courts granting bail unless there were "very cogent ... or exceptional circumstances".

NSW Attorney-General Bob Debus yesterday introduced a new act that will create a presumption against bail in courts in the state, hurrying through moves first mooted by Premier Bob Carr last month.

The rapid moves to keep suspected terrorists in jail until their charges are heard in court were prompted by the revelations of the Khazal and Jamal cases, and Roche's light sentence.

Jamal, still on bail for the Lakemba shootings, was allegedly given money by Khazal to leave Australia in March. On Saturday he was arrested in Lebanon on charges of funding and organising terrorism.

Khazal, who has been repeatedly questioned by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation over the past decade, is accused of collecting or making documents that are likely to facilitate acts of terrorism.

Police allege that Khazal, under the name of Abu Mohamed Attawaheedi, compiled a book on the rules and organisation of a jihad against the "infidels" that include Australians.