'Gruesome' evidence emerges in terrorism trial

from ABC.net

The trial of five Sydney men on terrorist-related charges has been told they possessed gruesome material supporting violent jihad.

The court heard the men were preparing for an attack in which the killing of children was considered permissible.

When police arrested the five accused men, who have pleaded not guilty, in November 2005 they seized books, hard drives, video, sound recordings and other documents.

The Crown today described the haul as quite gruesome, while outlining the contents in chilling detail.

"Beheadings and military training are obligatory," the court heard.

According to the Crown, there were constant references to the Koran in some of the documents.

"Martyrdom is the ticket to victory and the entrance into paradise in the hereafter," the documents read.

The five, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, sat quietly and occasionally passed notes to their lawyers.

It was alleged each owned material which preached the virtues of killing non believers to "fight in a manner designed to strike terror in the hearts of the enemy" and "in certain circumstances it is permissible to kill children, especially if they are in the way of the pursuit of violent jihad."

The Crown case says the accused were inspired by Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, who is credited with a revival of violent jihad in the 20th century.

It was his teaching that one hour spent fighting for Allah is worth 70 years praying at home.

Jurors in the trial were told that other material encouraged slaying the infidel.

"The greatest medicine we can apply to the brothers of the monkeys and pigs was to perform suicide operations," the court heard.

"There's no other technique which strikes as much terror in their hearts or shatters their spirit as much."

The prosecutions suggested the accused had carefully selected their reading matter and video tapes to prepare themselves for violent jihad in Australia.