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A notorious terrorist leader who plotted to blow up to Melbourne Cricket Ground at the AFL grand final has admitted he needs time adjusting to life as a free man and the public have nothing to worry about following his recent release from jail.
Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 63, spent 18 years behind bars for conspiring to attack the MCG while packed with 100,000 fans, along with Melbourne’s rail network and Crown Casino in 2005.
The convicted terrorist has broken his silence since his release from high risk and maximum security centre Barwon Prison two weeks ago in the wake of the recent controversial High Court ruling that indefinite detention was unlawful.
Abdul Nacer Benbrika (pictured leaving Barwon Prison) is still getting used to life a free man
Benbrika wanted Australians to know that he has learned a huge lesson and reassured the public he won’t offend again.
‘I’ve thought about it and I have learned a huge lesson’.
Benbrika also conveyed a message to those who were anxious by his release from prison.
‘Listen, just sleep. Don’t worry about it, you nothing to worry about from him (Benbrika) now’.
Debate rages about whether he should have been released, including claims by a leading national security think tank that it was ‘highly unlikely’ that he wasn’t a public threat.
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Two of his sons also allegedly have ties with convicted terrorists and underworld figures including gangster Ahmed Elomar.
‘People should know that Nacer (himself) is not what he was,’ Benbrika told the publication.
‘Don’t worry about it, you nothing to worry about from him (Benbrika) now’.
Abdul Nacer Benbrika (pictured) conspired to attack the MCG while packed with 100,000 fans
Benbrika has had 30 strict conditions imposed on him, despite Victorian Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth ruling that he had made substantial progress towards deradicalisation
He must wear a tracking device, is banned from sending any mail and must reside with his wife and four children at their home in Melbourne’s north.
There are also restrictions on who Benbrika can contact, where he can go and who can visit the family home.
Before his sentence expired in 2020, former Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton successfully applied for the order, which allows courts to keep convicted terrorists behind bars if they pose a continued danger to the community.
Algerian-born Benbrika has won a landmark court ruling to overturn a government attempt to strip him of his Australian citizenship and deport him.
Benbrika, 63, migrated to Australia in 1989 and got his citizenship in 1998 but it was ripped up in 2020 after serving 15 years in jail for running a terrorist organisation.
The convicted terrorist leader must wear a tracking device as part of the 30 strict conditions imposed on him
