Rural sparky who researched missiles for IS headed home
An electrician who researched rockets for the Islamic State but later denounced the Islamic State’s extremist ideology will be closely watched by federal police when he returns to his quiet rural town.
Haisem Zahab, who has been denied parole twice, will be released from prison when his nine-year sentence ends on Friday.
The 52-year-old man was jailed by the NSW Supreme Court in 2019 for supporting a terrorist organisation, after researching and developing a laser warning receiver, rockets and rocket guidance methods for ISIS.
At a hearing in early March, police asked the Federal Court to impose temporary control orders allowing them to supervise the electrician when he returned to live with his family in the rural town of Young.
Judge Stephen Burley imposed the order on Monday, finding it was appropriate and that all the conditions recommended by police were necessary.
The judge’s full decision was postponed until Tuesday to give the parties time to make recommendations for corrections.
Conditions include electronic monitoring, treatment programs and educational support.
At an earlier hearing, the Australian-born man’s lawyer unsuccessfully argued that post-sentence supervision was not necessary.
Lawyer Riyad Al-Choufani said Zahab had repeatedly denounced his extremist beliefs since April 2019, after pleading guilty to aiding ISIS.
He said the electrician moved to Young from Sydney and was not working full time when he created his first Twitter account.
“Unfortunately, it appears here that Mr. Zahab has fallen into a Pandora’s social media box, falling prey to the seductive qualities of Islamic State propaganda,” he said.
The court was told that the Arab Spring was breaking out at the time and the electrician saw ISIS as a bulwark against the oppressive regime of then Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
He later told prison officers that while he was conducting his investigation from late 2014, he thought the terror group was “a force for good”. Zahab was arrested in March 2017.
The electrician had completed two prison programs targeting people with extremist ideologies.
Meanwhile, his family had completed a course on radicalization so they could recognize the warning signs.
Police acknowledged the 59-year-old had made some progress.
But barrister Trent Glover SC, acting for the federal police, said there remained a chance he would return to his old ways as he had been privately radicalized online.
Mr Glover said Zahab minimized his behavior while in prison and described his research into rockets as a project within his interests and hobbies.
The agreed facts in the criminal case stated that Zahab researched and used 3D technology to develop the mechanical design and fabrication of a laser warning receiver that would provide advance notification of incoming laser-guided weapons.
He prepared a 288-page report on the recipient and sent it via secure software to a British citizen who later accepted membership in ISIS.
In 2019, sentencing judge Justice Geoffrey Bellew rejected Zahab’s evidence that he was in a cult or bubble of ISIS supporters – including on Twitter, where he used the pseudonym “Stranger” – and kept himself away from mainstream news.
The claim that ISIS was a “force for good” and could therefore aid civilians fighting against the Assad regime was “delusional in the extreme”.
A full hearing to confirm, modify or revoke the temporary control order will be held June 1.
