A Queensland man who wanted to use improvised explosives in a domestic terror plot after being prevented from fighting in Syria has been jailed for 17 years.
Agim Kruezi, 25, was sentenced to 17 years and four months, with a non-parole period of 13 years, after pleading guilty to preparing for incursion into a foreign state and preparing or planning for a terrorist act.
Justice Rosalyn Atkinson found he lacked remorse and had not rejected the violent extremist views that led him to obtaining materials to create Molotov cocktails to unleash a “deadly” attack.
Agim Kruezi (above), 25, was sentenced to 17 years and four months, with a non-parole period of 13 years
Kuezi (right) after pleading guilty to preparing for incursion into a foreign state and preparing or planning for a terrorist act
A Queensland man who wanted to use improvised explosives in a domestic terror plot after being prevented from fighting in Syria has been jailed for 17 years as his supporters (above) appeared at a court in Queensland
“You remain a serious risk to the public,” Justice Atkinson said during sentencing in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday.
“You adhere to a radical strand of Islam and held extremist, ideological views that endorsed and promoted violent Jihad.”
Kruezi, from Logan, south of Brisbane, was motivated to create “death and destruction” by a religious duty, Justice Atkinson said.
His bid to travel to Syria to fight with al Qaeda-affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra in March 2014 was stopped by customs officers.
After his passport was cancelled, he turned his attention to an attack on home soil.
Justice Rosalyn Atkinson found Kruezi (above) lacked remorse and had not rejected the violent extremist views that led him to obtaining materials to create Molotov cocktails to unleash a “deadly” attack
Supporters (above) of Agim Kruezi were seen outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Kruezi purchased 10 litres of petrol months later before attempting to buy glass bottles suitable to make Molotov cocktails.
His actions led to police raiding his home in September 2014 where they found weapons and extremist literature.
The defence submitted Kruezi’s terror plot was “unsophisticated” and he had not set a specific attack target.
Justice Atkinson believed that did not make his offending less serious.
“You did acts preparatory to engaging in brutal and savage acts which would have caused death and destruction to many victims,” she said.
Family members and supporters (above) of Kruezi sobbed as his sentence was handed down
“They were designed to cause fear and intimidation to the whole community.”
Kruezi spent more than three months in solitary confinement after his September 2014 arrest.
Family members and supporters sobbed as his sentence was handed down.
He was arrested in a series of counter-terrorism raids alongside Omar Succarieh, who attempted to aid Kruezi’s bid to travel to Syria by putting him in contact with his brother who was fighting in the Middle Eastern country.
Succarieh was sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ jail in November 2016 after he pleaded guilty to covertly sending money to anti-Assad regime forces in Syria.