Man, 25, who travelled to Syria to fight with Islamic State says he was ‘extremely bored’

 A Sydney man who pleaded guilty to a terror-related charge after travelling to Syria is due to be sentenced in one week after a judge found his evidence was ‘implausible’.

Mehmet Biber, now 25, told a sentence hearing on Friday he now had a ‘very different mentality’ than when he travelled to Turkey to enter the war-torn region in July 2013.

He was arrested in Sydney in late 2016 some 18 months after he’d returned to Australia.

Biber denied ever fighting despite a photograph taken in Syria showing him among a group of men posing with assault weapons. He also said he never saw fighting as the group was ‘protective’ of Australians

Biber denied ever fighting despite a photograph taken in Syria showing him among a group of men posing with assault weapons.

The 25-year-old insisted he was ‘extremely bored’ after being taken to a rural farming area where they did ‘literally nothing,’ because the group was protective of the Australians and wouldn’t take them anywhere near the fighting, the NSW Supreme Court at Parramatta heard.

Biber said he spent most days talking or playing soccer with children, according to the ABC.

He claims he no longer sympathises with Islamic State despite evidence to the contrary found in his Whatsapp chats on his phone following his return.

He pleaded guilty in February to entering a foreign state intending hostile activity, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in jail.

Justice Christine Adamson said much of Biber’s evidence was ‘implausible’ but that didn’t mean it was untrue.

Biber is due to be sentenced on April 27. 

He claims he no longer sympathises with Islamic State. This is contrary to evidence found on his phone by police