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Number of Australians funding terror groups, including IS, triples in past year: report

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

The number of Australians who have funded international terrorist organisations, including Islamic State, has tripled in the past 12 months.

The alarming finding was revealed by Australia's financial intelligence agency, Austrac, on Thursday. It confirmed that 367 reports were referred by banks and private sector companies in 2015 where money changed hands between a terrorist group and backers in Australia.

A further 169 reports forwarded to Austrac were deemed to be "potentially related" to terrorism financing, but could not be proven.

The majority of these transactions were made to sections of the Islamic State (IS) fighting in Iraq and Syria, the report said.

"2014 was the deadliest year for terrorism on record," Austrac chief executive Paul Jevtovic told the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

"The threat is real, it is serious, it is not abating."

"That's why agencies like Austrac and our partners both domestically and internationally have got to be vigilant."

"We have got to challenge ourselves, and we have got to continually find more effective ways to actually beat those who would support terrorist groups."

Overall, there were 81,074 "suspicious matter reports" referred to Austrac over the course of the last financial year.

Under Australian law, bank staff are required to report any transaction with potential links to terrorism to Austrac within 24 hours.

Around 110 Australian residents are believed to have took up arms for IS in Syria and Iraq, with another 190 thought to be involved in internal recruiting and financing operations.

On Wednesday, Sydney man Omarjan Azari, who was arrested in Australia's largest counter-terrorism raids last year, pleaded guilty of funding IS.

The court heard Azari planned "to help get people from Pakistan into Syria as fighters" by making a once-off donation of 6,500 U.S. dollars to military group.

Earlier this week, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and New South Wales Premier Mike Baird gathered in Sydney to mark the one-year anniversary of Martin Place Siege, Australia's worst domestic terror attack. Endit