Vic: Jack Roche gives evidence in terrorism committal hearing

AAP General News (Australia)
08-21-2006
Vic: Jack Roche gives evidence in terrorism committal hearing

MELBOURNE, Aug 21 AAP - The holder of a letter seized by Melbourne counter-terrorism
investigators had a desire to perform jihad and possibly achieve martyrdom, convicted
Australian terrorist Jack Roche says.

Roche today appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court by video-link from an undisclosed
location for the fourth week of a committal hearing for 13 men charged with being members
of a terrorist group.

When questioned by Michael O'Connell - the lawyer for one of the accused men, Izzydeen
Atik - Roche admitted he was interviewed by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in January
this year about his "opinion and thoughts" on certain matters.

In December 2005, Roche was asked his opinion about a letter written in Arabic and
seized by Melbourne police involved in a counter-terrorism investigation.

"The phrasing of the letter lends itself to somebody intending to commit jihad in the
way of Allah," Roche said in a police statement tendered to the court.

He said the most concerning aspect of the letter was a phrase which says "go out in
Allah, the Almighty's cause".

"That to me suggests a quite serious and specific, rather than general, desire of the
holder of the letter to perform jihad possibly to the point of martyrdom for Allah's cause,"

Roche said in the police statement.

Roche was sentenced in Perth to nine years' jail, with a minimum term of four-and-a-half-years,
after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Canberra.

When questioned by Tony Trood - the lawyer for another of the accused men, Amer Haddara
- Roche denied that he had been given a reduced prison sentence on the promise of giving
evidence in this matter.

"As far as I know, whether I cooperate or I don't cooperate ... I don't think there
is any come-back on me," he said.

The committal hearing before magistrate Paul Smith continues.

AAP mf/gfr/ks/sd

KEYWORD: TERROR VIC

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