Bilal Khazal

Bilal Khazal (also Belal Khazal) is a Lebanese Australian who was a former baggage handler for Qantas Airways at Sydney Airport and a prominent figure in the Islamic Youth Movement.

Born in Lebanon, the father of two was listed in a Central Intelligence Agency U.S report as a member of Al-Qaeda and it was claimed that he had received training from the Taliban in 1998. He was also a subject of intelligence reports at the time of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The Four Corners television program has also accused him of being a confidant of al-Qaeda's leader Osama Bin Laden.

On 25 September 2009 the Supreme Court of New South Wales sentenced Bilal Khazal to 14 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 9 years, for producing a book whilst knowing it was connected with assisting a terrorist attack that would happen in Australia. In 2011 the conviction was overturned and Khazal was granted bail by the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney on 7 June 2011, after spending nearly three years in jail. Mr Khazal's barrister, Charles Waterstreet, said that his jail conditions had been "just one step down from Guantanamo Bay".^{[citation needed]}

External links

• The Baggage of Bilal Khazal
• Jihad text gave rules of killers, court told.
• DIY terror book author gets 9yrs.