Bangladeshi-origin man jailed in Australia for planning terror attack in Bangladesh

A Bangladeshi-origin man has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison by an Australian court for planning a terror attack in Bangladesh.

Between May 2015 and February 2016, Nowroz Rayed Amin, 30, was a dedicated follower of the Islamic State when he communicated to two guys in Bangladesh on social media about his plans to visit, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

On February 7, 2016, Amin was attempting to fly to Bangladesh when he was detained at Sydney Airport while wearing tactical boots. USB sticks, three pairs of camouflage trousers, a set of mixed martial arts gloves, along with Australian and Bangladesh money were discovered in his suitcase.

Ten editions of the Islamic State online magazine, an online article advocating a battle plan of driving into a military facility and detonating a vehicle, and the 241-page bomb-making handbook The Anarchist Cookbook were discovered on the USBs.

There were also videos of executions and suicide bombings.

Amin stated to Border Force officials that the information was intended to educate and prevent his relative in Bangladesh from joining Islamic State, but he was denied boarding and his passport was eventually revoked.

He was arrested at his house in Ingleburn, Sydney's southwest, in June 2018. He admitted to doing an act in preparation or planning for a terrorist attack, as well as attempting to export items that encouraged a terrorist act.

On Monday, New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling said Amin admitted that he was looking for someone overseas who could teach him to use explosives, but claimed the explosives were only to be used in Bangladesh and not Australia.

He sentenced Amin to five years and four months in prison, with a four-year non-parole period, noting that his crime was "a serious one," but that he had made no meaningful plans for what would happen in Bangladesh.