The words appear in flames across the screen. "In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate," according to a translation. Then there are images of devastated towns and exploding tanks against a soundtrack of thunder and lightning. The video is said to depict mujahideen tramping through the forest, across mountains and sliding down snowy slopes, to the sound of chanting and verses from the Koran.Yesterday the jury in the trial of Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, were played the video, allegedly found at his Lakemba home during ASIO raids in October, 2003. Lodhi is on trial in the Supreme Court on four terrorism-related charges. He is accused of planning to bomb a Sydney defence site or the national electricity grid.
Translated from Arabic, the video says: "The religious rite of jihad should be built up in the souls. It should be learnt that jihad is the best thing that man can ever volunteer to do and that volunteering for jihad for the cause of Allah is better than volunteering to perform pilgrimage Â… " Jihad, it says, "is a way to spread the religion and terrorise the enemy, to expand the domain of Islam around the world".
Lodhi's barrister, Phillip Boulten, SC, has told the court that the accused does not believe in "violent jihad", as alleged by the prosecution.
| "No, no, certainly not!" |
| "Never seen 'em." |
In other evidence, Lodhi's former boss at Thomson Adsett Architects, Susan Kenny, said he did not need 38 aerial photographs of three Sydney defence sites for his work. However, under cross-examination Ms Kenny said staff had discussed aerial photographs as being a useful tool.