09/23/26 02:37:00
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09/23 02:35 CDT Australian man is accused of being Islamic State group
propagandist who shared 10,000 files online
Australian man is accused of being Islamic State group propagandist who shared
10,000 files online
By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY
Associated Press
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) --- A man in the Australian city of Melbourne is
accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and spreading
thousands of pieces of extremist propaganda online over a period of years, the
authorities said on Wednesday.
He was the seventh man to be arrested in Victoria state since May over
allegations of possessing or distributing IS content online. Australia's
federal police didn't link the latest arrest to the other six and wouldn't say
if they believed the man's case was connected.
The 65-year-old Australian citizen, whose name hasn't been released, was due to
appear in a Melbourne court later on Wednesday. He's charged with being a
member of a terrorist organization and with transmitting violent extremist
material in an encrypted messaging app the authorities didn't name.
The maximum penalty for the offenses is 10 years in prison.
The authorities said the man had sent 10,000 files containing extremist content
between 2015 and 2020, including material relating to executions, torture and
IS propaganda. The federal police allege that he also shared information about
avoiding detection from law enforcement and instructional guides on planning
and conducting mass casualty attacks, a statement Wednesday said.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Paula Hudson told reporters in Canberra that the
scale and distribution of the materials by the man "placed him as a principal
distributor of ISIS propaganda within the group."
"The material glorified acts of violence and terrorism, spreading hateful
ideology that is designed to radicalize others," Hudson said.
An investigation into the man began when border officials examined the man's
luggage as he departed Australia for a six-month trip to Egypt in 2020, the
authorities said. He wasn't known to have traveled abroad since 2020 and wasn't
linked to any attack or plot, Hudson said.
Earlier this month, a 30-year-old Melbourne man was arrested and charged with
possessing violent extremist content as he attempted to depart Australia for
the Middle East, authorities said. The federal police allege he was part of an
online group chat with five other Victoria state men arrested in May, who all
face charges relating to possessing extremist material, including IS propaganda.
The Islamic State group is a scattered and considerably weaker group since a
2019 United States-led military intervention drove it out of territory it had
seized in Iraq and Syria, but its cells remain active and it has inspired a
number of independent attacks, including in western countries. In Australia, a
mass shooting at a Hanukkah event in 2025, in which two men are accused of
killing 15 Jewish people, was motivated by the shooters' IS affiliations, the
authorities allege.
It's thought 200 Australians traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic
State group between 2012 and 2019, according to a website for the country's
national security agencies. Dozens more "assisted" IS by supporting those
overseas or by planning or carrying out terrorist attacks in Australia, the
website says.
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