Five charged in Australia over terror act conspiracy

Police told a news conference the potential targets of the plot included the headquarters of the Australian Federal Police in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, as well as randomly chosen civilians. Thursday’s arrests resulted partly from evidence seized during police raids in December 2014, a police statement said. Three other men, all of them already in custody on terrorism-related offences, were also charged same day, as part of the same operation.

All have been charged with one count of conspiracy to conduct an act in preparation for a terror¬ist act, police said. They had been involved in “formulating documents connected with preparations to facilitate, assist or engage a person to undertake a terrorist act”, they said. Australia, a staunch ally of the United States in its battle against Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria, has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown radicals since last year.

“It is disturbing that we continue to deal with teenaged children in this environment,” New South Wales state Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said. “To be putting a 15-year-old before the courts on very serious charges that carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment demonstrates the difficulties law enforcement face,” she said.