Police say they arrested the man after ‘a short struggle’ at a home in Redfern

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Sydney man has been charged under New South Wales terror laws after police arrested him during “a short struggle” at a home in Redfern.

The 24-year-old man was arrested on Friday after police conducted an unscheduled search of his Redfern home and viewed “items” on his mobile phone.

He was taken to the Botany Bay police station and charged under the Terrorism High Risk Offenders Act.

The police, who seized the man’s phone, allege he had failed to comply with interim supervision orders recently imposed on him.

He was charged with several terror-related offences, and the police also said he resisted arrest.

The man was refused bail to appear at the Parramatta bail court on Saturday.</s>An Aboriginal man has walked free from jail on Monday despite recommendations by the The Terrorism High Risk Offenders Assessment Committee.

Greg Ceissman allegedly converted to Islamic State ideology while serving time in jail for car theft, driving while disqualified and resisting police.

According to the Australian, the 24-year-old is accused of plotting a bomb threat to Bankstown Shopping Centre and made threats to Marrickville police station.

The Terrorism High Risk Offenders Assessment Committee recommended he stayed behind bars but Justice Stephen Rothman signed off on Ceissman's release from prison.

His release was subject to strict interim supervision orders which include refraining from using the internet at his father's home in Redfern.

Conditions also included unexpected visits, wearing an ankle bracelet, letting authorities know of his movements and to stay away from Marrickville.

It is believed Ceissman lived in Marrickville before he was incarcerated and had clashed with local police on multiple occasions.

Five days after his release from prison, Ceissman was arrested for researching a map of the New South Wales police academy on Google.

He is accused of breaching his supervision order by looking at the map during one of his unexpected visits by police.

It was flagged as a concern due to previous threats involving the inner-west police station.

NSW police and the Department of Corrective Services established the High Risk Terrorism Offenders Unit last year to identify jail extremists.

It allows police to obtain detention orders for extremists inside prison and orders extended supervision for terrorist sympathisers once they are released.</s>A Sydney man has been charged under New South Wales terror laws after police arrested him during “a short struggle” at a home in Redfern.

The 24-year-old man was arrested on Friday after police conducted an unscheduled search of his Redfern home and viewed “items” on his mobile phone.

He was taken to the Botany Bay police station and charged under the Terrorism High Risk Offenders Act.

The police, who seized the man’s phone, allege he had failed to comply with interim supervision orders recently imposed on him.

He was charged with several terror-related offences, and the police also said he resisted arrest.

The man was refused bail to appear at the Parramatta bail court on Saturday.</s>A man who was has a history of violent sexual offences and reoffending as both a youth and an adult has been charged by Regina police for allegedly violating his recognizance.

Philip Lionel Levac, 30, was arrested on April 18 at his home in North Central after police received a complaint he was in the company of a female youth three days earlier.

Police said their investigation determined he was in breach of his conditions.

READ MORE: Regina police investigating after man convicted of sex assault appears on dating app

Levac is charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference and four counts of beach of recognizance.

He is scheduled to appear Thursday morning in Regina provincial court.

Police issued an advisory in November 2017 for Levac, who was considered to be at high risk to reoffend.

READ MORE: Police warn public of man at high risk to reoffend

The advisory stated he had never completed programming to address his risk factors while incarcerated and did not make any progress in reducing his risk to reoffend.

Levac was bound by a number of conditions, including a curfew and having no contact, either directly or indirectly, with any of his victims.</s>Breaking News: There's an extreme fire emergency in southern New South Wales, near the ACT border, with firefighters desperately concerned that lives are at risk. Sean Berry reports.</s>More than 70 green turtles hatched on a beach near Coffs Harbour, on New South Wales’ north coast, on Saturday, April 14.New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) staff excavated a turtle nest on Boambee Beach and released 72 young turtles into the sea on Saturday. Another 42 hatchlings were found on Monday, April 16.“Despite seeing all the hatchlings off to the water’s edge, only one in 1000 will likely survive to reach adulthood,” NPWS Ranger Martin Smith said. Credit: New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service via Storyful</s>A Sydney man who travelled to Syria and later pleaded guilty to engaging in hostile activities insists he was “extremely bored” and never went near any fighting.

Mehmet Biber was arrested during counter-terrorism raids in Sydney in November 2016, after he travelled to Syria in July 2013. He returned to Australia in February 2014 and was the subject of a lengthy investigation before being charged with entering a foreign state intending hostile activity.

Biber, now 25, pleaded guilty in February and on Friday had a sentence hearing in the New South Wales supreme court at Parramatta. He said he travelled to the war-torn region after seeing videos of women and children suffering under the Assad regime.

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“That hit me in the heart because I had a wife [who] was pregnant at the time as well,” Biber told the court.

One of Biber’s friends introduced him to a man who had connections in Syria and organised for him to join a group travelling there via Turkey. He recalled having “tunnel vision” and clouded judgment.

“I was thinking about all those atrocities,” he said on Friday.

Biber met a member of the Ahrar al-Sham group on the Syrian border whose members – mostly locals – were not as extreme as other rebels in ideology or religion, he said. The group was very protective of the Australians and shielded them from any prospects of fighting, he said.

“We were extremely bored,” Biber said, claiming most days were spent lying around or kicking a football with local children.

He denied ever fighting but admitted he would have tried if given the chance. However, about one month into his trip, Biber visited Raqqa and began to have doubts.

“By then I’d achieved nothing,” he said. “If anything I was a burden to these people, feeding me and taking us around, practically treating us like kids – pretty much babysitting us.”

Biber has been in custody since his 2016 arrest and says his time in jail has been hard on his family, including his now four-year-old daughter.

“I just want to put it behind me, hopefully, and get on with my life,” he said.</s>A Sydney man has been caught making $1 million in counterfeit $50 notes, despite Australia boasting it has one of the lowest rates of counterfeiting in the world.

Benjamin Gillette-Rothschild, 34, pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre District Court, The Daily Telegraph reports.

How he made the fake notes remains a secret due to the court order, but he boasted the process was so easy he did it all from the comfort of a leather chair.

Can you spot the fake? One of these $50 notes is real, and one of them is not. The genuine bill is at the top, and the fake at the bottom. The fake $50 is more pale, its edges are skewed, has only four stars and the embossing on the window is missing (photo obtained by The Daily Telegraph)

Gillette-Rothschild allegedly used 'fake names' to buy three commercial printers for $80,000, ink, and specialised plastic.

He pleaded guilty to eight charges of making counterfeit money, and was sentenced in February.

The Australian Federal Police arrested him in September 2016, while raiding a house in New South Wales.

According to court documents, he asked four international people to 'get change at retail stores' for $100,000 worth of counterfeit notes, according to the,The Daily Telegraph.

Police however, allegedly intercepted a phone call between two men.

The other man was given a suspended jail sentence in 2017.

The Reserve Bank of Australia, on its website, boasts Australia has one of the lowest rates of counterfeiting in the world.

'Most people will never see a counterfeit, the website stated.'

'Even so, it is important to be aware of the security features included on Australia's banknotes so you can protect yourself against accepting a counterfeit. It is important to note that counterfeits have no value.'

About $850,000 of the fake money has reportedly been recovered.</s>SYDNEY/MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Police have arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of planning to use an automatic rifle for a mass shooting on New Year's Eve in downtown Melbourne, Australia's second largest city.

 Victoria state police said on Tuesday that the man was acting alone and had not been able to acquire a firearm before his arrest late on Monday. 

 Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said the man, an Australian citizen with Somalian parents, had been monitored by authorities since the beginning of the year. 

 "He's accessed documents produced by al-Qaeda Arabian Peninsula which is a guide book in respect to how to commit a terrorist act and also how to use firearms, guns and handguns and rifles," Patton said at a press conference in Melbourne.

 "We are alleging that ... he is a sympathizer of ISIS." 

 The man had planned to shoot as many people as possible at Melbourne's Federation Square, which swells with crowds on New Year's Eve as the focus of the city's celebrations, Patton said.

 Australia, a staunch U.S. ally that sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, has been on heightened alert since 2014 for attacks by home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East or their supporters.

 A gunman in a deadly 2014 Sydney cafe siege boasted about links with Islamic State militants, although no direct ties with the group were established. The shooting murder of a police accountant by a 15-year old boy in 2016 was claimed by Islamic State.

 Around a dozen significant plots have been foiled since the alert was issued, according to officials, including a plot to attack prominent sites in Melbourne last Christmas Eve and a plan to blow up an Etihad Airways flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi using a bomb disguised as a meat mincer. 

 Police said the man arrested on Monday will be charged after his police interview and will then appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court, likely later on Tuesday or early on Wednesday.

 

 (Additional reporting by Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Editing by Jane Wardell and Richard Pullin)
Police in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, charge a man with several crimes under the Terrorism High Risk Offenders Act.