Australian police from the Joint Counter-Terrorism taskforce have charged a third man arrested in last weekend's terror raids in Sydney.
A police officer at a checkpoint in the Sydney inner suburb of Surry Hills. Photo: AFP
Khaled Merhi, 39, has been charged by New South Wales Police and the Australian Federal Police with one count of possessing a prohibited weapon and released on bail to face court later this month.
He was driven out of the Sydney Police Centre shortly before 5:00pm (local time) on Sunday.
Two other men - arrested in the same raids - have already faced court over an alleged plan to bring down a passenger plane.
Khaled Khayat and Mahmoud Khayat have been remanded in custody to appear in court again in November.
The Australian Federal Police have called the plan "one of the most sophisticated terror plots attempted on Australian soil".
Authorities will allege they stopped two plans: the first to blow up a passenger plane with an improvised explosive device (IED) hidden in luggage, and another to unleash a deadly gas bomb.
The men have deep connections to Islamic State and police will allege the IED had been built under instructions from a senior IS controller in Syria and was to be planted in the luggage of a brother of one of the accused on the Etihad flight out of Sydney on 15 July. Police said the brother was not aware of the plan.
Police described the IED as a "high-end military-grade explosive".
However, that attempt was aborted, and a second plan was then hatched to create a toxic hydrogen sulphide bomb.
- ABC
