MELBOURNE, Australia (AA) – An Australian teenager pleaded not guilty Tuesday after being charged with plotting a terror act during annual commemorations marking the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Canakkale during World War I.
The 16-year-old is charged with trying to obtain a gun to carry out a terror plot on Anzac Day — a significant national holiday on April 25 that honors the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS) who fought and died in Canakkale on Turkey’s western coast in 1915.
Australia and New Zealand commemorate the event as Gallipoli.
His lawyer, Zemarai Khatiz, pleaded not guilty Tuesday on behalf of the Sydney teenager — who did not appear at court — and said a bail application would be submitted Friday.
Local media quoted Khatiz as saying that an assessment he had arranged with an expert psychologist would be incorporated into the defense’s report.
“The psychological impact of long-term incarceration will be a very relevant and powerful factor in that bail application,” he said.
Police sources told news broadcaster ABC that they had been keeping track of the teenager since a terrorism plot in Melbourne last May, and they were in contact with him under an intervention program aimed at preventing overseas recruitment for Daesh.
The messages intercepted by police that led to Monday’s terror charge reportedly referred to April 25 without revealing a specific time or place.
The offense carries a maximum penalty of life in jail.
