Convicted terrorist released from jail after 20 years

Justice Hollingworth said the tools, known as VERA-2R and Radar, had relied on poor-quality evidence and were regarded as no better than flipping a coin.

Justice Hollingworth said she would refer the government’ to the Independent Security Monitor, saying it was “clearly a document that should have been disclosed” to Benbrika’s lawyers in 2020.

Justice Hollingworth said the risk Mr Benbrika posed was “still unacceptable” due to the serious nature of his offending.

However, she said the Muslim cleric had made “substantial progress towards de-radicalisation” and that the conditions imposed should protect the community.

Justice Hollingworth rejected the AFP’s bid to limit the number of people who could visit Mr Benbrika at his home.

“This will be the first time Mr Benbrika has lived in the community since his initial arrest nearly 20 years ago,” she said.

Acting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the government had not done everything it could “to keep the public safe from this convicted terrorist in the lead-up to Christmas”.

‘Targets’

Benbrika was arrested in 2005 with the Federal Police claiming his group planned attacks on targets such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the AFL grand final.

The claim was rejected at his trial in 2008, but Benbrika was still sentenced to 15 years’ jail for planning public attacks in retaliation for Australia’s involvement in the Iraq War.

When his sentence expired in November 2020, then Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton cancelled Benbrika’s citizenship. He was also subjected to continuing detention order for three years that was due to expire on December 23.

In November, the High Court ruled the citizenship move was invalid because Mr Dutton had “usurped the exclusively judicial function of punishing criminal guilt”.

The court then ruled immigration detention without prospect of removal to be invalid for the same reason in the NZYQ case.

with AAP