Former Home and Away actor Omar Baladjam is one of two convicted jihadis who have reportedly lodged last-ditch appeals for freedom or a retrial.
He and Mohamed Ali Elomar, who were behind one of Sydney’s biggest terror plots, are using legal aid to lodge their appeals against lengthy prison sentences they’re currently serving, The Daily Telegraph reports.
The pair are in Goulburn Supermax Prison for their involvement in a Sydney terror cell that stockpiled bomb-making chemicals and weapons as part of a terror-related plot being planned before they were arrested as part of landmark counter-terrorism investigation Operation Pendennis in 2005.
Mohamed Ali Elomar (pictured) is currently serving a 28 year prison sentence for his involvement in one of Sydney’s biggest terror plots
Elomar plans to take his fight to Australia’s High Court after the NSW Legal Aid Commission gave him access to a leading barrister to get his conviction quashed, be granted an acquittal or given a new trial, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Currently serving a 28 year prison sentence, Elomar lost an original appeal in 2014.
Barrister David Dalton SC lodged an application for leave to appeal in the High Court in May.
The Crown has rejected all the arguments put forward but a decision is still to be made, according to the publication.
Former television actor Omar Baladjam (pictured in ABC crime drama Wildside) hopes to get his prison sentence reduced when his appeal is heard in August
Baladjam, 41, hopes to get his sentence reduced in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, despite being eligible to apply for parole in less than three years.
The matter is listed for hearing on August 18.
Baladjam had a short acting career, where he appeared in an episode of Australian soap Home and Away and starred alongside Rose Byrne in two episodes of ABC crime drama Wildside.
Operation Pendennis led to the longest and most expensive criminal trial in Australian history.
‘During the trial the community never really found out how serious a threat was posed by these people,’ a senior officer involved in the operation told The Daily Telegraph.
‘The amount of weapons and chemicals they had and were planning to get more of was frightening.’
Elomar and Baladjam are currently serving lengthy prison sentences at Goulburn Supermax Prison (pictured)