Charges await for terror fugitive: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 27 Sep 2006: 4.
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Abstract
At the time he left Australia, [Jamal] faced a number of charges including firearms-related offences. Two of these related to the shooting at Lakemba police station and another two charges, including one of malicious wounding, related to a separate shooting in Greenacre. Jamal was also charged with discharging a firearm in inner-city Redfern.
Speaking from Beirut jail recently, Jamal said he admired Osama bin Laden and that Australia was an illegitimate state that should be ruled by Muslims. He warned that Australia would “suffer the consequences” if he were extradited.
Full Text
CONVICTED terrorist Saleh Jamal will be charged with terror and gun offences when he arrives in Sydney today after being deported from Lebanon.
The Australian-born Muslim, who said from Roumieh prison in Lebanon that Australia would “face the consequences” for his deportation, was transferred to a holding cell at the Lebanese Justice Ministry in Beirut at dawn yesterday, before being put on a flight to Australia.
Jamal, in his early 30s, allegedly used a false passport to skip bail in 2004 while awaiting trial for a drive-by attack on Lakemba police station in Sydney’s west in 1998.
His parents, who moved to Australia from Jordan in 1964 before Jamal was born, were reportedly forced to sell their home to cover the $150,000 bail.
Jamal was arrested shortly afterwards in Beirut, where he was convicted by a military court of planning attacks against the state.
Originally sentenced to five years, Jamal’s term was cut to two years by a Lebanese court earlier this year.
He is expected to arrive in Sydney via Dubai on an Emirates flight early today, and will be taken straight to a police station to be charged.
NSW police refused yesterday release details on his return on security grounds.
Australian authorities have been ready to collect Jamal from Beirut since July, but the destruction of the airport by Israeli forces in the conflict with Hezbollah delayed his extradition.
Jamal was accused by Lebanese authorities of having links to a 2004 bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus. He was also wanted in relation to thebombing of a McDonald’s restaurant in Beirut in April 2003, but charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
At the time he left Australia, Jamal faced a number of charges including firearms-related offences. Two of these related to the shooting at Lakemba police station and another two charges, including one of malicious wounding, related to a separate shooting in Greenacre. Jamal was also charged with discharging a firearm in inner-city Redfern.
Speaking from Beirut jail recently, Jamal said he admired Osama bin Laden and that Australia was an illegitimate state that should be ruled by Muslims. He warned that Australia would “suffer the consequences” if he were extradited.