(Sydney) Australian police announced Thursday the indictment of five teenage members of a network posing “an unacceptable risk and threat” to the population, following a series of anti-terrorism searches.
These police raids led to seven arrests on Wednesday as part of an investigation into the “accomplices” of the 16-year-old teenager who stabbed a bishop and several faithful last week in an Assyrian church in Sydney.
More than 400 members of the police took part in the searches in 13 different locations in the city.
Three of the teens were charged Thursday with conspiring to plan or prepare a “terrorist act,” police said, while two others were charged with possessing “violent extremist material.”
One of the members of the group was also charged with “possession of a knife in a public place”.
The young people arrested Wednesday adhered to an “extremist ideology motivated by religious considerations” and were part of a “larger network”, according to the police, who did not specify which ideology was in question.
A senior New South Wales police official, Dave Hudson, said on Wednesday that the “intense” surveillance of the network presented an alarming picture, which required immediate action.
“Their behavior while under surveillance led us to believe that, if they were to commit an act, we would not be able to prevent it,” he told the press.
“During the investigation, we believed it was likely that an attack would occur,” he added.
Last week, Mar Mari Emmanuel, bishop of an Assyrian Christian church in Sydney, was stabbed several times in the head and chest by a 16-year-old boy during a live-streamed sermon. He was hospitalized, but his life is not in danger.
The cleric who had a large audience on the internet, of nearly 200,000 people, made himself known by criticizing Islam and vaccines against COVID-19.
The National Council of Imams of Australia warned on Thursday against excessive police intervention which risks further alienating “disillusioned young people”.