The wife of a man accused of plotting a massacre on the streets of Melbourne claims he is innocent.
Habiba Ba, 26, who is married to Ertunc Eriklioglu, 30, said she is confident he’s not guilty and that he didn’t deserve to get arrested.
She has also blasted police who searched her Dallas home during a dawn raid when multiple Korans, computer items and scripture CDs were seized.
‘He’s not guilty. I’m not going to believe it. How am I going to live without my husband?’ she told the Herald Sun.
Habiba Ba, the 26-year-old wife of accused Ertunc Eriklioglu (believed to be pictured here outside their Dallas home as it was being raided) has said she is confident her husband is innocent
Mrs Ba said she did not understand why her husband was arrested during the raid on their home where multiple qurans, computer items and scripture CDs were seized
Mrs Ba said she did not understand why her husband was arrested on Tuesday morning.
She was awoken in the early hours of Tuesday to the sounds of breaking glass and men with guns shouting.
‘When they raided the house, they came from nowhere. We were sleeping in bed. I have small children who were in the house. Also my sister’s boy is only two weeks and my daughter is two months and my husband has his little daughter as well,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We were all scared. It was terrifying. They had a gun and everything and they pushed my husband. He cut (his face) when they broke the windows and my husband was just screaming. They were screaming and he screamed back.’ she said.
Mrs Ba said her husband’s face was cut when police pushed him to the ground, which was covered in broken glass.
‘They were very rough and they didn’t even care the kids were here.’
The mother to a two-month-old and three-year-old daughters said she regularly used her husband’s phone and never saw any contact with extremist groups or any weapon research.
She added that she believed he wouldn’t have a clue where to buy a gun or how to use it and didn’t even carry a licence.
Ertunc Eriklioglu, 30, (pictured) was arrested in relation to a terror plot that police claim he as well as two others, wanted to ‘kill a maximum amount of people as possible’ in a crowded place.
The Dallas home, where Eriklioglu and Ba live with their two children, which was part of a four-home raid on Tuesday morning
Mrs Ba lashed out at the raid which saw police seize multiple items and smash two windows
‘They haven’t done nothing wrong. If you look at their history, they haven’t done nothing. No criminal history. Nothing. They have done nothing. I can’t believe this. There is no truth to it,’ she said.
‘I wasn’t expecting it at all. Our family is good. We go to the park, we go to picnics, we have barbecues. We weren’t expecting something like this – three men in a terror attack. It’s not true.’
The claims came after Ba revealed she had spoken to Eriklioglu over the phone from police custody just hours after the raid on their home.
Assuring her everything was going to be fine, he told her to ‘not worry, be patient’.
Contemplating her husband serving a life sentence behind bars, Mrs Ba said she could not bear think about it.
She added that she couldn’t eat or drink and that hasn’t stopped crying since his arrest.
Eriklioglu, his brother Samed Eriklioglu, 26, of Campbellfield and Hanifi Halis, 21, of Greenvale have been charged with one count each of an act in preparation for, or planning of terrorist acts.
Samed Eriklioglu, 26, (right) of Campbellfield and Hanifi Halis, 21, of Greenvale (right) have also been charged with terrorism crimes after allegedly plotting a massacre on the streets of Melbourne
Armagan Eriklioglu – the father of Samed and Ertunc – has denied his sons have any association with terrorist organisations.
After supplying Daily Mail Australia with photographs of the family, he denied one of them, which appeared to show himself and his son displaying a distinctive one-finger hand gesture, is the salute of ISIS.
‘No no. That’s not an ISIS salute. It means one creator. Everyone does that. We don’t know anything about a ISIS salute. Nothing at all. Not us. No way,’ he said.
He continued that the gesture was commonly used by Muslims long before it was hijacked by the terrorist organisation.
‘All we know is from hadith, prophet Muhammed done that 1 finger,’ he later clarified via text.
‘You can read hadiths about it. So ISIS has been around few years. That flag finger don’t belong to those idiots. We have been around more than 1440 years. Whoever made ISIS, they’re showing Islam bad.’
The gesture was widely adopted by the Islamic militants as a propganda symbol for their cause.
After supplying Daily Mail Australia with photographs of the family, he denied one of them, which appeared to show himself (middle) and his son (right) displaying a distinctive one-finger hand gesture, (pictured) features the salute of ISIS
The photo was among a bundle of family happy snaps provided to Daily Mail Australia by Mr Eriklioglu during a visit to his Campbellfield home on Wednesday
The three men, arrested in the city’s north-west on Tuesday after four raids, are of Turkish descent and were allegedly trying to get hold of a semi-automatic rifle.
Police claim the trio wanted to ‘kill a maximum amount of people as possible’ in a crowded place.
All three were hours later charged with one count each of act in preparation for, or planning of terrorist acts and will face Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday, the AFP said.
The arrests come just 11 days after ISIS-inspired knifeman Hassan Khalif Shire Ali stabbed three, killing one, on Melbourne’s Bourke Street.
All three were hours later charged with one count each of act in preparation for, or planning of terrorist acts and will face Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday, the AFP said (court sketch)
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