Terrorist raids: family say they were terrified

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This was published 9 years ago

Terrorist raids: family say they were terrified

By Anne Davies
Updated

Rabie el Achwah, 22, was downstairs in his home in Hector Street, Bass Hill, pouring himself a glass of milk before morning prayers at 4.45am, when he was startled by violent thumps on the front door and the front window shattered.

Armed police burst through the front door of the townhouse, in an unprepossessing blond brick complex, causing Rabie to throw the milk carton toward the intruders in fright. Then there was a bright flash as the police fired some kind of flare that blinded him.

The next thing he knew, he was on the ground being handcuffed. His father Khador came downstairs and was similarly detained on the ground with a gun in his face.

Upstairs his wife, two daughters in their teens and a twin boy and girl, aged 11, were startled from sleep. They began coming down the stairs, to be met by a man wearing a balaclava and carrying a gun.

"Go back, go back," he shouted directing them back upstairs. "They were then ordered to sit on the floor, with their hands on the bed," Khador said.

"'They were terrified," said Khador, a Palestinian, who came from Lebanon. "I have lived in Australia 15, 16 years, this is my home and I am happy to live in Australia.

"I know they have a job to do, but why come like this, into a house and frighten my children?

"We are good Muslims, not terrorists," he said. "This is a misunderstanding."

No arrest was made at the Hector Street house.

The search warrant was still lying on the table when Fairfax Media visited. The family, still stressed after 11 hours of questioning, were cleaning up. Every drawer and cushion cover had been opened.

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The warrant named Rabie, and said he was being investigated for acts done in preparation or planning a terrorist act contrary to section 101.6 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code.

Rabie said he had done nothing of the sort. He admits he knows one of the other people who was arrested, Omarjay Azari.

"I met him at the Bukhari House Bookstore," he said. "He was a nice gentle guy, very religious.

'"I feel very upset. I don't want to do harm to this country; it is my second home."

Rabie said that though he was born a Muslim, it was only in the past six months that he had begun regularly attending the mosque and visiting the bookshop.

"ASIO took my passport away two or three months ago," he said. "Since then I have been targeted."

The family said the police took away laptops, iPads and phones, including the children's phones. Rabie said most of his possessions had been taken. The front door is so damaged that it no longer opens.

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