Arsalan Khawaja, brother of Pakistan born Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja has been booked by Sydney police on the charges of framing his colleague over a fake terror plot to assassinate senior politicians. Both, Arsalan and his friend Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen are reported to be love rivals.
Police confirmed that Arsalan Khawaja had been formally charged and was arrested around 8:30 am on Tuesday. He was pulled over while driving through Parramatta in Sydney’s west.
A purported ‘hit list’ was found in Nizamdeen’s university notebook which led to his arrest. Moreover, Arsalan’s arrest comes as a follow up to the arrest of his colleague, Nizamdeen, a SriLankan Ph.D. scholar at the University of New South Wales. Nizamdeen was arrested in August and held in solitary confinement in Goulburn Supermax prison for a month after the notebook was initially discovered. He was detained for allegedly plotting the ISIS-inspired lone-wolf attack on a list of targets including the former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and world heritage sites like the Sydney Opera House. Later, police came to the conclusion that Nizamdeen was set up in a plan that was devised by Mr. Khawaja. Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing, of the NSW Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Command, said, “We believe this was planned and it was calculated.”
However, police dropped all charges against Mohamed Kamer, when a handwriting expert was not able to find any ‘conclusive’ proof when the ‘hit list’ matched his handwriting. “We regret the circumstances which led to him being charged and the time he subsequently spent in custody,” Assistant Commissioner Willing said. “We feel very sorry for him and what has happened to him…[but] we had to act early at the time, given the threats contained in that notebook”, added Willing.
Nizamdeen after returning to Sri Lanka told a press conference in Colombo that he had been detained in a secure Australian prison unit reserved for the country’s most dangerous suspects. Reading from a prepared statement he said, “It took six days for my lawyers to contact me. I had no contact with the outside world for six days, which is a violation of basic human and fundamental rights.”
Arsalan Khawaja was taken to Parramatta police station over the charges of attempting to pervert justice, and forgery, by making a false document. He later was granted bail with the strict condition of not going within 100 meters of the University of New South Wales, a $50,000 surety and surrendering his passport to the authorities.
Finally, the police have withdrawn the charges against Mohamed Kamer Nilar Nizamdeen. AFP Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney said, despite the mistaken arrest of Mr. Nizamdeen, investigators had always acted in good faith. Mr. Khawaja is scheduled to appear again before Parramatta Local Court on February 12.
Pakistan-born Australian opener Usman Khawaja is trying to make a comeback into the playing 11 from injury on this Thursday against India in the first test of a four-match series. The first test is scheduled between 6-10 December at Oval cricket ground in Adelaide.
