"An influential former Islamic State supporter who was released from a supervision order last year was questioned in Wednesday's police raids on an alleged terrorism network involving a group of Sydney boys.
Excerpts from a police warrant seen by ABC Investigations show self-styled preacher Wassim Fayad, 56, was among two men and 12 boys targeted in the raids across south-west Sydney, as part of an investigation triggered by the stabbing of a bishop last week.
Five boys, aged 14 to 17, faced a children's court on Thursday charged with a range of offences, including conspiring to prepare or plan for a terrorist act.
Fayad spent seven years in jail until 2020 after being convicted of a failed ATM ram raid, the whipping of a Muslim convert and being an accessory to an attempted shooting murder at a gay sex club.
While in jail, police alleged Fayad was a member of an Islamic State terrorism cell that was plotting attacks in Sydney.Once released, the Supreme Court placed him on a two-year extended supervision order in 2021, finding he was a high risk of recruiting younger or vulnerable people to commit a terrorism offence.
But a judge last year refused to extend that order, ruling the state of NSW had not proved he posed "an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offence if not kept under supervision"."
