| Submit your comments on this article |
| Down Under |
| Sydney bomb plotter charged |
| 2006-03-26 |
| An Australian woman charged at the weekend with plotting to bomb Sydney was a convert to Islam who planned the attack at the behest of a jailed murderer angered over anti-Muslim race riots here late last year, newspapers reported on Sunday. Jill Courtney, 26, was arrested at her suburban Sydney home on Friday in a swoop by federal and local police operating under anti-terrorism laws. She was charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosives to be placed in or near a public place. The court granted a request by Courtney's lawyer that the woman be assessed by a psychiatrist. Police were not required to detail the allegations against Courtney during a brief court hearing on Saturday, but Sunday newspapers quoted police sources saying they believed she was acting out of love for a jailed murderer, Hassan Kalache. Kalache, 28, is serving a 22-year sentence for killing a rival drug dealer in 2002 and allegedly told Courtney he was angry over race riots in Sydney last December and that he would marry her if she carried out a retaliatory bombing, The Sunday Telegraph reported. A police detective told the Sun Herald newspaper Courtney converted to Islam after becoming "besotted" with Kalache. "It's a pretty sad case, she's a bit of a candle in the wind," he was quoted as saying. Courtney was due to appear in court again on Monday. Last year's riots began when a white mob shouting racist chants assaulted people of Middle Eastern appearance in the blue collar beachside suburb of Cronulla. The riot prompted a wave of retaliatory attacks, mainly by ethnic-Lebanese men, in which churches, shops and cars were trashed. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |