Christmas 2016 terror plot, Melbourne
On 22 December 2016, the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team (AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO) arrested men it said had planned an attack in Melbourne's CBD. A joint AFP–Victoria Police release says the men planned "to use improvised bombs and machetes in a terrorist attack in Melbourne’s CBD during the 2016 Christmas period." Detectives from Operation Kastelholm seized machetes, partly built IEDs, and devices holding Islamic State propaganda and bomb-making instructions. The SMH reported that between October and late December 2016 the group bought chemicals and other materials from Bunnings and Chemist Warehouse, downloaded bomb-making instructions and tried to make IEDs. The ABC reported that the trial heard Federation Square was a planned target.
Ibrahim Abbas pleaded guilty and gave evidence that he was the ringleader. In September 2018, Justice Andrew Tinney sentenced him to 24 years with a 20-year non-parole period, although the sentence was not published until November 2018, after a suppression order was revoked. Justice Tinney said: “Your timely arrest by the dedicated and expert investigators of the Joint Counter Terrorism Team was all that prevented a devastating and murderous terrorist attack in the heart of the City of Melbourne.”
In October 2018, a jury found Hamza Abbas, Abdullah Chaarani and Ahmed Mohamed guilty of conspiring to do acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act (s 101.6 Criminal Code (Cth)). On 29 November 2019, Justice Christopher Beale sentenced Hamza Abbas to 22 years (non-parole 16 years 6 months). Chaarani and Mohamed received new head sentences of 38 years (non-parole 28 years 6 months), because both were already serving terms for setting fire to a Shia mosque in Fawkner. Justice Beale called the plot "an assault on the fundamental values of our society".
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