Australia's biggest terror trial begins

MELBOURNE: A Muslim terrorist organization planned to kill a thousand people by targeting a railway station or a football ground in Australia to force the government to withdraw troops from Iraq, the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday at the start of the country's biggest terrorism trial.
    
Twelve men are charged with being members of an unnamed terror group preparing to use explosives or weapons for an undisclosed terrorist act, with the intention of coercing a government or intimidating the public, according to the charge sheet in the Victoria State Supreme Court.
    
Prosecutor Richard Maidment said the group's spiritual leader, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, in a taped conversation suggested that an attack was needed that "would make the government sit up and take notice".
    
"They were intending something big. To cause maximum damage. To cause the death of a thousand.... by use of a bomb," Maidment told the jury in his opening statement.
    
"We don't want to kill one, two or three, if we kill a thousand then they will sit up and listen and they will bring the troops back," Benbrika allegedly said in a conversation with another man.
   
The taped recordings took place between July 2004 and November 2005.
    
Benbrika, 47, told other members that the killing of women and children was justified in the cause of jihad, the prosecutors alleged.
    
Others on trial are Aimen Joud, Shane Kent, Hany Taha, Ezzit Raad, Abdullah Merhi, Bassam Raad, Shoue Hammoud, Majed Raad, Amer Haddara, Fadl Sayadi and Ahmed Raad.
    
All have pleaded not guilty.