Court restores airline worker’s terror conviction

Australia’s High Court has reinstated a terrorism conviction against a former Australian airline worker who published a do-it-yourself book on how to wage holy war against non-Muslims on the internet.

The five judges yesterday unanimously overturned a lower court decision that had quashed 42-year-old Sydney resident Belal Sadallah Khazaal’s conviction for producing a book knowing it was connected with assisting in a terrorist act.

There was no evidence that it resulted in a terrorist attack.

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The charge was created in 2002 as part of a raft of tough new Australian terrorism laws legislated in response to the al-Qaida attacks on the United States.

The former Qantas Airways employee was charged in 2003 became one of the first terror suspects to be charged under the laws.