Muslim's video testimony in Sydney terror trial

Terrorist met Australian at boot camp

Michael Pelly
The Australian
January 13, 2009

A CONVICTED terrorist has told of how he met an Australian man accused of plotting an attack on Sydney at a training camp in Pakistan only months after September 11.
Yong Ki Kwon, 33, said via video link from the United States that he had prayed and shared meals with an Australian he knew as Abu Asad at the camp run by Lashkar-E-Taiba (LET) in early November, 2001.

Mr Kwon told the NSW Supreme Court said everyone had a beard and everyone was referred to as Abu - which in Arabic means son of - but the “foreigners” formed their own separate group.

Mr Kwon, who was sentenced to 11 years jail in the United States but served on 28 months after becoming an FBI supergrass, said he met “Abu Asad’’ as he moved to a different part of the camp in the final days on his 45-day program.

After Mr Kwon was led through his evidence, he was questioned extensively by Richard Button SC, the barrister for one of the accused, Moustafa Cheikho.

Mr Cheikho and fours others - his brother Khaled, Mohamed Ali Elomar, Abdul Rakib Hasan and Mohammed Omar Jamal have been charged with conspiring to commit an act, or acts, in preparation for a terrorist act. They have pleaded not guilty.

Mr Kwon said all trainees prayed five times a day and underwent extensive physical training and instruction on how to use weapons including guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

He said he went to Pakistan with three friends from Virginia at the urging of an Islamic cleric and planned to defend Afghanistan against the expected invasion from the United States after the terrorist attacks on September 11.

He identified Asad as Australian because of his accent and said he was about 178cm, with a thick-set build.

As he was preparing to leave, Mr Kwon said he was asked by a man he called “Disco Mujahadeen’’ if he would recruit for LET in the United States but declined the request.

He then went to South Korea, where he was contacted by the FBI and agreed to be questioned.

Mr Kwon will continue giving evidence tomorrow.