Counter terrorism officers arrest Melbourne man, suspected ISIS member

Counter-terrorism police in Melbourne arrested a 65-year-old man suspected of being a key propagandist for ISIS. The arrest occurred following a raid at his home in Carlton, carried out early Wednesday morning by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Victorian Joint Counterterrorism Team. Authorities allege that he pledged allegiance to ISIS without leaving Australia and distributed approximately 10,000 files of extremist material online between November 2018 and July 2020. The man faces charges for membership in a terrorist organization and transmitting violent extremist content via encrypted messaging apps. Assistant Commissioner Paula Hudson stated that the scale of his activities made him a principal distributor of ISIS propaganda within the group, spreading messages related to executions, torture, and mass murder. This arrest is part of an ongoing investigation initiated after Border Force officers discovered suspicious material on his electronic devices upon returning from Egypt in 2021.