A HALLAM teenager has been jailed for up to 10 years over an Anzac Day terror plot to behead a police officer in 2015.
Sevdet Ramadan Besim, 19, had pleaded guilty to preparing a terrorist attack involving running down and beheading a police officer with a knife at an Anzac Day service.
Justice Michael Croucher, of the Victorian Supreme Court, ruled Besim will be eligible for parole in seven-and-a-half years.
The offence carries a maximum life imprisonment.
“To the vast majority of the community it is unfathomable that an 18-year-old boy would plan to kill a law enforcement officer by (deliberately) crashing into him with a car and then to behead him with a knife,” Justice Croucher said on 5 September.
The “outrageous and gruesome act of murder” would have been “in the name of violent Jihad” to make sure what Besim called “the dogs – that is those in authority – remember this as well as their fallen heroes”.
It hatched in his bedroom in his parents’ Hallam home via a messaging service with a 14-year-old co-conspirator in the United Kingdom.
Besim seemed to have been stirred into action after the death of his friend Numan Haider – who was killed during an alleged knife attack on police at Endeavour Hills police station, Justice Croucher said.
Besim, who had no prior convictions, left a suicide note for his family but was arrested by police a week before Anzac Day. He has remained in custody ever since.
“On the one hand, the offence was at once terrifying and evil,” Justice Croucher said.
The judge noted Besim did nearly all of the preparation and planning. He had a knife, a car and a Jihad flag and searched on the Internet for Anzac Day memorials.
Justice Croucher said there were also “perhaps faint” suggestions that Besim might have pulled out of the plot – but that was a small consideration even though no terrorist act occurred.
The judge was not persuaded on the balance of probabilities that Besim had renounced his violent jihadist beliefs, but otherwise had good prospects for rehabilitation.
He took into account the accused had showed contrition, was young, had a supportive family and pleaded guilty.
Justice Croucher indicated that the jail term started from today (5 September) but would include Besim’s period of pre-sentence detention.
