An Australian car salesman has been jailed for his plans to travel to Kashmir , to avenge his “brothers and sisters” by fighting, if necessary, to die as a martyr, The Age has reported.
On Wednesday, judge Justin Hannebery jailed Khaled Temssah for four years and nine months after the father of two pleaded guilty to preparing to travel overseas to engage in hostile activities, a terror-related offence that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, the newspaper further reported.
According to the report, Temssah’s online exchanges with a man on the Wickr messaging platform in June 2019 showed he was deadly serious about wanting to travel from Melbourne to India to fight in Kashmir. Terror organisation Islamic State claimed it had established a province in India in the months before.
The Melbourne-born 32-year-old has been in custody since his arrest at his workplace, a Holden dealership in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, and must serve another 18 months before he is eligible for parole, the Australian newspaper further reported.
Temssah’s online exchanges with a man on the Wickr messaging platform in June 2019 showed he was deadly serious about wanting to travel from Melbourne to India to fight inKashmir. Terror organisation Islamic State claimed it had established a province in India in the months before.
Over 17 days, he sent messages and an audio file on Wickr, unaware that his contact was an undercover operative posing as an extremist. Temssah wrote in one message: “I want to be on the front line, brother, with the mujahideen [jihadist fighters] and I want to give my life to Allah so how much for flights and what [is] the next step I take?”
