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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Police on Tuesday announced the arrest of three men who were preparing to attack a "mass rally" in Melbourne, less than two weeks after the death of a man in the city's second largest city. Australia, in what the police described as the act of terrorism.
The Australian federal and state police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization and other agencies in the joint anti-terrorism team made the arrests on Tuesday morning.
Police said three men, 21-year-old Hanifi Halis, 26-year-old Samed Erikioglu and 30-year-old Ertunc Erikioglu, were arrested when they allegedly sought a semi-automatic firearm to carry out a search. attack.
The three men were accused of planning a terrorist act, police said. They are all Australian citizens and their passports were canceled earlier this year.
"We now have enough evidence to prevent a terrorist attack," Graham Ashton, chief police commissioner for Victoria, told reporters.
Police said the suspects had not yet decided where to attack them but that they thought it was imminent.
"They were definitely looking for a mass meeting place, where there would be crowds," Ashton said. "They were trying to focus on trying to have a place where they could kill as many people as possible."
Police said they thought the arrests had canceled any threat from the group.
The police said it was analyzing 17,000 intercepted phone calls and 10,500 messages exchanged between the two groups as part of the evidence gathered during their arrest. Police said it would take several months to transcribe calls and messages.
Australia, a convinced ally of the United States that has sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, has been under increased alert since 2014 for attacks perpetrated by local militants returning from fighting in the Middle East or their followers.
Australia currently considers the likelihood of a militant attack as "likely", a central point of a five-level threat ranking system. It has been set at this level since the implementation of the system in 2015.
Police said the three men were known to the authorities and their passports had been canceled, fearing to visit a conflict zone abroad.
The arrests took place less than two weeks after a man set fire to a pickup truck loaded with gas cylinders in central Melbourne and stabbed three people, killing one, before he was shot down by the police.
As in this attack, police said on Tuesday that the three men were inspired by the Islamic State rather than led by the militant group.
Police said the three suspects had no connection with the man responsible for the 9 November attack, although they intensified their preparations for the assault.
"Certainly, last week, they were excited to do something faster," Ashton said.
Police said the suspects were using encrypted email applications to communicate, which one Australian government minister said was further evidence of the need to amend the law.
Australia proposed earlier this year a law that would require companies such as Facebook and Apple to provide access to private encrypted data related to alleged illegal activity.
"We now have people exchanging messages with the help of encrypted email applications. The police are blind to these messages, "Minister of the Interior Peter Dutton told reporters in Sydney.
Report by Wayne Cole, Colin Packham and Karishma Luthria Editing of Lincoln Feast, Paul Tait and Michael Perry
