A Sydney man who allegedly provided the pistol used in a fatal terrorist plot against police shared images of ISIS beheadings and suicide bombings and referred to the "enemies of Allah,' a jury has been told.
Mustafa Dirani is accused of conspiring with others to do an act of terrorism which led to the fatal shooting of police accountant Curtis Cheng outside the NSW Police Force headquarters in Parramatta at 4.30pm on October 2, 2015.
Dirani also faces a back-up charge of supplying a firearm to an unauthorised person. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges, claiming he had no involvement in any terrorist conspiracy.
As a NSW Supreme Court retrial kicked off Wednesday, crown prosecutor David Staehli SC said months before the attack, Dirani had made extremist posts in a WhatsApp group chat with associates including Raban Alou that showed he was contemplating a terrorist attack.
"He posted various images and some audio files ... which referred to beheadings and suicide bombs carried out by ISIS," Mr Staehli said.
Responding to a June 2015 invitation by federal police to Muslims to celebrate Eid together, Dirani is alleged to have written: "That night we will see the apostates taking the enemies of Allah as allies."
A police search of Dirani's Marsfield home after Mr Cheng's murder found CDs of Islamic music known as nasheeds, some of which contained extremist content, as well as a series of books about the formation of Islamic State, the jury heard.
Mr Cheng was shot in the back of the head by 15-year-old Farhad Mohammad who had walked to the police headquarters from Parramatta Mosque.
The teen, dressed in traditional Islamic clothing, was killed after engaging in a gunfight with police security guards.
A bloodstained note in Mohammad's handwriting was found on his body.
"Oh you disbelievers, know your security means nothing to us," he wrote.
"Soon by the will of God exalted, your nights will turn into nightmares, your days into hell."
Mohammad's older sister left Australia the day before the attack, heading to Syria where she met her future husband, an attack planner for Islamic State. The couple were killed in a lethal drone strike by American forces five months later.
Mobiles owned by Mohammad and his sister were found under a public toilet door in an apartment next door to Alou's family home in Wentworthville, the jury heard.
On the day of the attack, Dirani and Alou met at Parramatta Mosque. Alou received a phone call from Talal Alameddine where they discussed the "handover of something," Mr Staehli told the jury.
Soon after, Alou and Dirani took separate cars to Jones Park where they met Alameddine. The three men then drove to Warwick Road in Merrylands near Alameddine's house.
Alou and Dirani then drove to Merrylands Park where they were again met by Alameddine. It was possible, but not definitively proven, that something was handed over at this moment, Mr Staehli said.
After Alameddine cycled away, the remaining two men drove to Alou's Wentworthville apartment where a white envelope was allegedly taken out of Dirani's car.
Dirani then drove back to Marsfield, and Alou returned to Parramatta Mosque where it is alleged that he handed the pistol to Mohammad in the women's prayer hall.
Mr Staehli acknowledged the Crown's case against Dirani was circumstantial but pointed to evidence from a listening device in Alou's Toyota, phone intercepts from Alou's phone and police surveillance as the pair drove through western Sydney on the day of the attack.
The inferences from this evidence would leave no alternative other than that Dirani was involved in a terrorist plot, the barrister said.
The hearing in front of Justice Deborah Sweeney continues on Thursday.
