A young man who confessed to plotting a "violent jihad" attack in Melbourne says he needed a team willing to blow themselves up, but his "disciples" argued against his plans.
Ibrahim Abbas is giving evidence for the prosecution in a Supreme Court of Victoria trial against his younger brother Hamza Abbas, 23, cousin Abdullah Chaarani, 27, and friend Ahmed Mohamed, 25.
The three men are on trial for conspiring to prepare for a terrorist attack in Melbourne on Christmas Day, 2016.
However Ibrahim, who has already pleaded guilty and admits being committed to the radical ideologies of ISIS, says he was the mastermind and had been trying to get the others to join him.
Hamza's barrister, Felicity Gerry QC, cross-examined Ibrahim on Thursday about his motives for pleading guilty.
He admitted he did so to receive a reduced sentence and laughed when she asked if another reason was so he could be labelled "terrorist".
"Maybe," he replied.
Ibrahim claims Hamza did not share his jihadist beliefs, did not know about his Christmas Day terror plans, and was not part of a conspiracy.
He added Hamza would have "unfortunately" been an unwitting victim of the attack by putting him in a suicide vest.
Ms Gerry asked if Ibrahim believed he would enter paradise as a martyr following the terrorist attack, getting a "pass" to take his little brother with him. Ibrahim agreed.
"So the idea of putting Hamza in a vest without telling him is he gets to go to heaven with you?" she asked.
"That was my belief," Ibrahim answered.
"You planned for him to be a victim without telling him he was going to be a victim?" she continued.
"Correct."
Ibrahim admitted he felt like Jesus, and the others were his disciples, under questioning by Chaarani's barrister, Patrick Tehan QC.
"You felt like a lord?" Mr Tehan asked.
"Not in a divine way," Ibrahim answered.
"It was a sense of spiritual enlightenment?"
"Yes."
"It felt like 'I'm Jesus and they are my disciples?'"
"Yes."
Mr Tehan also argued Ibrahim, when interviewed by police, wanted to instil a sense of fear in his interviewers in a bid to disseminate his message of violent jihad.
"You hoped by instilling fear ... your place as a terrorist leader, an honourable and brave jihadi, would be secured?" he asked.
"Yes," Ibrahim answered.
"(You needed) a team of people who were willing to blow themselves up?'
"Correct."
But Mr Tehan argued the reality was different, and the three accused men had argued against Ibrahim's plans.
Ibrahim agreed when Mohammed's barrister John Kelly SC said the confessed terror plotter was on "a lonely path" of meditating on the plight of Muslims in the Middle East.
He also agreed he had developed a "healthy self-regard" for his intellectual abilities, but that Mohammed had argued against the terrorist plot.
The trial continues.
Australian Associated Press
