Teen jihadi’s Parramatta terror slaying co-conspirator gets 14 years
Accountant Curtis Cheng was gunned down outside the Parramatta police HQ in 2015. Photo: AAP
A man who met a teenage assassin in a Sydney Mosque to hand over the gun used to kill a NSW Police accountant has been sentenced to 14 years.
Accountant Curtis Cheng was shot in the head by 15-year-old Farhad Mohammad outside NSW Police Force headquarters in Parramatta on October 2, 2015.
Mustafa Dirani was found guilty in April of being a terrorism co-conspirator in Mr Cheng’s murder after being accused with another man of supplying the 1942 Smith & Wesson revolver to the teenager at the Parramatta Mosque.
Farhad Mohammad left the mosque, found a victim and opened fire.Parramatta Mosque.
Dressed in traditional Islamic garb, Mohammad then walked to police headquarters, shot Mr Cheng as he left the building and was killed in an ensuing gunfight.
Dirani, 22 at the time of the murder, always denied he had any connection to the plot and pleaded not guilty.
“After the shooting of Mr Cheng was reported, Mr Dirani put posts on social media which suggested he did not know of the plan,” Justice Deborah Sweeney said in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.
While no footage showed the actual gun changing hands, the jury found Dirani guilty of involvement in the terrorist plot on the Crown’s circumstantial case against him.
Dirani was “involved only for a short time and in a limited way” in the conspiracy to murder Mr Cheng, Justice Sweeney said, and noted the prosecution’s case had narrowed.
Eight years in court
The verdict brought an end to a complicated judicial process that stretched over eight years.
“It would be fair to say the criminal justice system has not worked well in Mr Dirani’s case,” Justice Sweeney said of the delay, which was taken into account in reducing his sentence.
The maximum penalty for the offence is life imprisonment.
Dirani appeared via video link from prison, where he has been on remand since 2015, with a shaved head and long beard, holding his head in his hands throughout much of the sentence.
He will be eligible for parole if approved by the attorney-general in May 2026, with his full jail term expiring in November 2030.
-with AAP
