A convicted man who became one of the first people in Australia to be charged with terrorism offences has been released on parole.
Faheem Lodhi was granted the release recently by the NSW State Parole Authority and is now back in the community.
Lodhi is reportedly plying his former trade as an architect and draftsman following the release order.
Convicted terrorist Faheem Lodhi (pictured) was granted parole after he was among the first to be imprisoned over terrorism related offences
The 53-year-old is understood to have been released without any court-ordered notice requiring him to be monitored by police, the Herald-Sun reported.
A control order was also not placed on Lodhi meaning that he is free to travel overseas among several other provisions granted by the ruling.
This includes the ability to contact certain individuals and the freedom to possess and use certain items.
Lodhi is among only a handful of individuals who have been released on parole after being found guilty of terrorism offences.
The federal Attorney-General’s Department told Daily Mail Australia in a statement that specific information about Lodhi’s case would not be provided.
‘As a matter of longstanding practice, the Attorney-General’s Department does not disclose the details of individual federal offenders, including detail about decisions made in relation to federal parole matters,’ a department spokesperson said.
The ruling by the authority does carry conditions which Lodhi must abide by however, it is a significant decision which could provide a pathway for other offenders to have their sentence reviewed.
Lodhi was sentenced in June 2006 to 20 years behind bars after he was found guilty of plotting to bomb the national electricity grid and three army bases in Sydney.
His sentence included a 15-year non-parole period.
He was arrested in 2004 after spies at ASIO (Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation) uncovered his plans to order chemicals and instructions he had in his possession which could be used to make bombs.
In October 2003, ASIO officials raided Lodhi’s home in Lakemba in Sydney’s west, where they seized several other documents.
This included aerial images of several army barracks in Sydney including the Holsworthy and Victoria army bases and HMAS Penguin in Mosman, on Sydney’s lower north shore.
Lodhi (pictured) was found guilty by a jury of plotting to commit several terrorism related offences including plans to bomb the national electricity grid and several army bases in Sydney
Lodhi (pictured) was earlier denied parole after his bid to be released was denied twice by former attorney general Christian Porter in 2019 and 2020
Officers also obtained a so called ‘terror manual’ – a 15-page notebook full of handwritten notes in Lodhi’s native language of Urdu – which contained instructions on how to make several explosives.
During his trial at the NSW Supreme Court Lodhi denied at the time that he had sought after or had possession of any these items.
Lodhi, who emigrated to Australia in 1998 from Pakistan, had his bid to be released on parole rejected twice by former attorney-general Christian Porter in 2019 and 2020.
He was reclassified as a low-risk prisoner while he served part of his sentence at the Wellington Correctional Centre near Dubbo, 400 kilometres west of Sydney.
Lodhi initially served the first couple of years of his sentence in the Goulburn Supermax Prison.
He denounced his own and other extremist acts, with his lawyer telling a court in 2020 that their client ‘admitted his guilt and been able to face the pathway that led him to offending and the erroneous path he took’.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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