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An alleged extremist facing terrorism charges is accused of sending intimate love letters to an ISIS-supporting radical, known as the ‘tiny terrorist’, in jail, a court heard.
Hadashah Sa’adat Khan was arrested on February 25 last year and faces life in prison for a series of terrorism offences, including acting as a conduit between now-jailed American extremist Akram Musleh and other IS members.
The 23-year-old applied for bail at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday, but prosecutors say she remains committed to extremist religious ideology, pointing to jailhouse letters allegedly exchanged with alleged ‘tiny terrorist’ Momena Shoma.
‘I love you to infinity and beyond, I think about you all the time,’ the court heard she wrote in a letter to Shoma.
Momena Shoma, 27, (pictured) allegedly sent a series of letters to Hadashah Sa’adat Khan while they were in jail
‘I love you to infinity and beyond, I think about you all the time,’ the court heard Khan wrote in a letter to Shoma (pictured: a mock-up of the letters)
The accused terror supporter also referred to Shoma’s jail sentence when she allegedly wrote: ‘I cried for you more than myself.’
Shoma, 27, was jailed in 2019 for at least 31 years after she plunged a knife 3cm into her homestay host Roger Singaravelu’s neck while he slept alongside his five-year-old daughter in Melbourne on February 9, 2018.
Shoma, who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ – meaning ‘God is great’ – during the stabbing, later told officers she travelled to Australia with ambitions of attacking somebody in the name of ISIS.
On October 30 last year, police were called to the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Ravenhall after Shoma stabbed a prisoner in the hand with garden secateurs.
Shoma (pictured) was sentenced to 42 years in prison with a non-parole period of 31 years and six months becaming the first person convicted of terrorism in the name of jihad in Australia
In the letters, Khan also allegedly said, ‘two years ago I was reading about you in the news, next thing, glory to God, I’m in the same unit as you,’ according to news.com.au.
The court also heard she wrote: ‘I say this from the depths of my heart, what a great blessing to have (you) who will pull me aside and tell me if I am disobeying Allah.’
It is understood Shoma replied: ‘Young and passionate Muslims who are willing to surrender to the will of our maker.’
‘May Allah make a way out for us all and grant us an imminent victory,’ she wrote.
‘May He guide, protect and honour our mujahideen.
Shoma (left in chains in 2019, right in an older photo) told police she had practised the attack by stabbing a pillow while staying with a different family
‘I eagerly look forward to share the fruits of jannah [heaven] with you, my beloved sister.’
The letters were discovered in September and October last year.
Khan’s lawyer, Rishi Nathwani, sought to a suppression order on reporting the links between the two. Magistrate Ross Maxted refused.
The accused terror supporter, who the court was told had a strained relationship with her parents, wants to be bailed to live with them again.
Mr Nathwani suggested bail may go some way to break her association with the Shoma, but police said this could be done within the prison system.
Bangladeshi national Shoma was one student to take advantage of Mr Singaravelu’s generosity, staying with the nurse at his home (pictured) in Mill Park, northeast Melbourne
A bloody chair was pictured outside the home immediately after the brutal attack in 2018
An additional charge of recruiting an IS fighter has been dropped. But the woman now faces a new charge for allegedly failing to provide the passcode for an iPhone when her family home was raided in 2018.
Nearly 1000 IS propaganda images were found her phone, including of dead people and beheadings, when she was arrested and charged last year, court documents said.
Authorities also allegedly found videos about jihadism and martyrdom.
‘(She) has displayed a sense of detachment from mainstream society, maintained extremist religious views and appears to accept that violence is a legitimate means of pursuing her ideological goals,’ according to an affidavit prepared by federal police.
The woman remains in custody and is due to return to court on March 1.
