A BUTCHER linked to accused French terrorist Willie Brigitte was this month criminally charged with lying to ASIO during a secret hearing into an alleged Australian terror plot in late 2003. Abdul Rakib Hasan, 35, appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on July 12 after being served with a summons by the Australian Federal Police. The Weekend Australian can also reveal that six men have been interrogated at secret ASIO hearings over the past month in connection with an alleged plot to attack landmarks in Melbourne and Sydney. Two of the men were questioned in Sydney. The other four faced ASIO lawyers in Melbourne. At least two of the Melbourne men are understood to have been detained by ASIO for up to 24 hours. ASIO lawyers can question witnesses for a maximum of three eight-hour blocks. The use of the secret hearing powers can be revealed because the 28-day life of the questioning warrants has now expired. However, no details about what was discussed at the hearings can be publicly disclosed for the next two years. Anyone found guilty of breaching the ban faces five years in jail. The ASIO raids in both cities followed an eight-month inquiry into a group of men whom police suspect may have been plotting attacks against two Melbourne train stations and the Australian Stock Exchange building. Police suspect some members of the group also scoped harbourside targets in Sydney in the weeks leading up to New Year's Eve 2003. They believe one former member of the group was Saleh Jamal, who has been arrested in Lebanon on terror charges after allegedly fleeing Sydney while on bail early last year using another man's passport.
The alleged plot is not linked to Brigitte, who is now detained in Paris under French anti-terror laws. Brigitte has been accused of being a senior al-Qa'ida member with strong links to the terror group's outlawed Kashmiri affiliate, Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Mr Hasan faces two counts of making a false or misleading statement under an ASIO questioning warrant on November 8, 2003. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He is now the second man facing charges in relation to Brigitte's alleged plot to launch a terror attack in Australia after his arrival in May 2003. The other faces a Supreme Court trial in February on a charge of committing an act in preparation for a terror attack.
Brigitte has told French anti-terror judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere that he met Mr Hasan in Sydney. He has reportedly identified Mr Hasan from a photo shown to him in Paris in December 2003. Mr Hasan, who works at a Halal butchery in Sydney's Islamic heartland, was bailed to appear again on August 16. He was ordered to surrender his passport and report each Monday to Campsie police station in the city's southwest.