Security has been stepped up around a prominent Australian Muslim leader after Twitter threats from a Sydney-based militant seen in recent photos clutching severed heads in Syria.
In a tweet that's since been deleted, a man believed to be Mohamed Elomar offered $1,000 for information on the whereabouts of Dr. Jamal Rifi and his five children.
"Anyone in Sydney who can give me the details of Habashi dog Dr Jamal Rifi, anything, house details, wat area am willing to pay $1000," the tweet said.
Rifi is a general practitioner and outspoken community leader who this week condemned shocking images posted on social media by convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf of his seven-year-old child holding a mutilated head.
In 2009, Sharrouf was jailed for his role in a planned terror attack in Australia led by Mohamed Ali Elomar, the uncle of the man believed to have offered the bounty.
The senior Mohamed is currently serving a minimum 21-year sentence for the plot, which involved the manufacture of explosives for a "potentially catastrophic"attack.
Police are also taking the threat seriously. Rifi said the New South Wales Police Commissioner phoned him before sending officers to his house for a security audit.
Patrols have been stepped up in the area and his son's school principal has suggested he stay at home.
However, Rifi said he refused to be silenced.
"I'm not going into hiding. I know I'm fortunate enough to life in a country where law and order prevail and people can't take matters into their own hands, and affords me the freedom to speak. And I want to use that privilege to defend what we have in Australia and to keep it."
Credits: CNN
0 comments:
Post a Comment