Holsworthy terror plot trio lose appeal Three Melbourne men involved in a terrorist plot to attack the Holsworthy Army Barracks in Sydney have lost their appeal against their convictions and sentences. The men - Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 36, and Nayef El Sayed, 29, who were born in Lebanon, and Saney Edow Aweys, 30, who was born in Somalia - had appealed against their maximum 18-year jail terms but Court of Appeal justices Peter Buchanan, Geoffrey Nettle and Pamela Tate dismissed the appeal on Wednesday. The three judges also rejected an appeal by the Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions urging that the men be jailed for life. The three men were part of an Islamist terrorist cell that planned to enter the army barracks armed with military weapons and shoot as many people as possible before they were killed or ran out of ammunition. The men, who had met at the Preston mosque in Melbourne's north, were arrested in August 2009 after undercover police infiltrated the group. They were jailed in December 2011 for 18 years with a non-parole period of 13 years and six months after a Supreme Court jury found them guilty of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack in Australia. Two other men were acquitted of involvement in the plot. In their judgment handed down on Wednesday, the three appeal judges said it had been argued by the Commonwealth DPP that the sentencing judge, Justice Betty King, had handed down an inadequate sentence by focusing on the steps taken and not given sufficient weight to the nature of the plan "which could have had devastating consequences involving as it did a planned attack on a selected target with the intention of killing as many soldiers and others found there as possible." The appeal judges said the Commonwealth DPP had claimed the sentencing judge had wrongly characterised the plan as "amateurish" although it was accepted that it was simple and unsophisticated. The judges said they did not agree with the Commonwealth DPP's assertions, saying the sentencing judge was in no doubt as to the character of the offending. "In our view, the sentences imposed were severe but quite properly so," the judges said. We consider that the maximum penalty (life imprisonment) ought be reserved for the worst class of case. In our view, the offending here, regrettably, was not of the worst class. One can readily envisage circumstances in which the plan, although never carried out, is much more heinous. In her sentencing remarks in December 2011, Justice King said the background to the plan appeared to lie, to a degree, in the support the three men had for al-Shabab, a radical and extreme Muslim group based in Somalia. Al-Shabab has since claimed responsibility for the deadly Nairobi shopping mall massacre. Justice King said the men were all practising and devout Muslims. All of you believe in the principle of martyrdom. All of you believe it is your obligation to oppose and deal with those you describe as infidels, being persons who are not of the Muslim faith or those of the Muslim faith who do not observe the faith in what you perceive as an appropriate manner, or adhere to the strong and fundamentalist views that you all hold. The fact that Australia welcomed all of you and nurtured you and your families is something that should cause you all to hang your heads in shame, that this was the way you planned to show your thanks.