Australian pledged jihad to Osama, court told

MELBOURNE, July 24 (Reuters) A court hearing of 13 Australian men charged with being members of a terrorist group began in Melbourne today, with the prosecutor saying one of the men had pledged to wage jihad before Osama bin Laden.

Prosecutor Mark Dean said the men had been in the early stages of planning a terrorist act in Australia when arrested in late 2005 and early 2006, local media reported from a hearing in the Victorian County Court to determine if they stand trial.

The 13 men have been charged with international membership of a terrorist organisation, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail, and providing funds to a terrorist organisation.

No pleas are required until the end of the committal hearing.

The men were arrested after a two-year counter-terrorism investigation by police which saw a total of 19 men in Melbourne and Sydney charged with terror offences.

Dean said the Melbourne men were assisting the Sydney group with the purchase of laboratory equipment to be used to make explosives for a terrorist act aimed at forcing Australia to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, local media reported.

Australia is a staunch U S ally with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. While it has been targeted in attacks on foreigners in neighbouring Indonesia, Australia has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil.

One of the Melbourne men, Abdul Nacer Brenbrika, was the spiritual leader of the group, said Dean.

Dean said that in one conversation Brenbrika said: ''If we want to die for jihad we have to do maximum damage, maximum damage, damage to their buildings and everything and damage their lives.

Just to show them that's what we have been waiting for''.

''You have to be careful. Trust no-one.'' Another Melbourne man, Shane Kent, 29, fought with the Taliban and attended a training camp in Afghanistan where he committed himself to jihad in the presence of the al-Qaeda leader, Australian Associated Press reported from the court.

Only seven of the 13 men appeared in court. The other six men remained in prison. Brenbrika refused to attend court, claiming he had been assaulted the last time he made a court appearance, while another man was sick.

The hearing will continue next week.

REUTERS PKS VV1601