SYDNEY | Five men (Khaled Cheikho, Moustafa Cheikho, Mohamed Ali Elomar, Abdul Rakib Hasan, and Mohammed Omar Jamal) were found guilty for plotting a 2005 terrorist attack in Sydney.Police searches of the men's homes discovered instructions on bomb-making, militant Islamist literature, in addition to footage of beheadings carried out by Islamists and of airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. According to prosecution evidence, the men purchased explosive chemicals and guns between July 2004 and November 2005.Concluding arguments in the trial of Moustafa Cheikho, Khaled Cheikho, Mohamed Ali Elomar, Abdul Rakib Hasan, and Mohammed Omar Jamal on charges of conspiring to commit an act, or acts, in preparation for a terrorist act were heard on July 28, 2009. The trial took place in a specially built high-security court building in Sydney.The prosecutor Richard Maidment claimed at the trial that the five men wanted "violent jihad which involved the application of extreme force and violence, including the killing of those who did not share the fundamentalist ... extremist, beliefs".The trial was nearly aborted when the defense asked for the jury to be dismissed, because it was discovered that a young woman, who is a relative of one of the accused, had been coming to court and reportedly writing down descriptions of the jurors.
he five were found guilty on 16 October 2009, after one of Australia's longest trials, during which approximately 300 witnessess appeared and 3,000 exhibits were tendered, including 18 hours of telephone intercepts and 30 days of surveillance tapes.Outside the court, supporters of the five men shouted protest in anger when they watched the ruling was handed down on an outdoor screen.The five men will return to the New South Wales Supreme Court on December 14, 2009 for sentencing.They face a maximum sentence of life in prison.The precise target of their planned attack has never been disclosed.
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