Four to be tried over Aust army suicide plot

October 26, 2009 02:31:08 PM

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Four men accused of plotting to use automatic weapons in a suicide assault on an Australian army barracks were Monday committed to stand trial on terror charges, a court official said.

Abdirahman Ahmed, 25, Saney Aweys, 26, Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 33, and Yacqub Khayre, 22, pleaded not guilty to the charges related to an alleged conspiracy to attack the Holsworthy Army Base on Sydney's outskirts.

Melbourne Magistrates Court magistrate Peter Reardon said there was sufficient evidence before the court for the men, who did not contest the committal, to stand trial.

The charges against the men include an alleged conspiracy to attack the Holsworthy barracks, a centre for thousands of military personnel.

The men, who were picked up in a major counter-terrorism swoop in August, did not apply for bail and will face Melbourne Supreme Court on November 9.

A fifth accused, 25-year-old Nayef El Sayed, has also been charged with helping prepare an armed attack on the base but has elected for a contested committal hearing next May rather than go straight to a Supreme Court trial.