Judge jails Jihad book editor

From 7 News:

The editor of a do-it-yourself terrorism book that advocated "widespread and indiscriminate loss of life" has been handed a hefty sentence by a Sydney court.

Former Qantas cabin cleaner Belal Saadallah Khazaal has been jailed for a maximum of 12 years, with a non-parole period of nine years, for making a document connected with assistance in a terrorist act and knowing about that connection.

The 110-page book compiled between September 20 and 23, 2003, entitled Provisions Of The Rules of Jihad and published online in Arabic, was a "practical guide to achieving martyrdom".

It contained advice about terrorist acts such as exploding bombs, shooting down planes and assassinating people such as former US president George W Bush.

"It advocated widespread and indiscriminate loss of life, serious injury and serious property damage within the countries identified as enemies of Islam," Justice Megan Latham said in sentencing the man in the NSW Supreme Court.

Dual Australian and Lebanese national Khazaal, 39, has never denied compiling the book from online material but said it was never intended to incite terrorist acts.

He told prison officers that the material was "strictly religious journalism".

On Friday, Justice Latham said she found it "unsurprising" a jury had rejected his defence.

"It beggars belief that a person of average intelligence who had devoted themselves to the study of Islam over a period of some years would fail to register the nature of the material," she said.

Khazaal's lawyers had argued that because he was not involved in planning any specific terrorist act, he should not be charged under the federal government's tough new Terrorism Act.

But Justice Latham disagreed.

"The dissemination of extremist activity, connected or unconnected with a terrorist plot, is caught by the legislative scheme, no doubt because literature of the type sourced by the prisoner is capable of, and has been shown to, foment terrorist activity," she said....

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