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Australia needs to be "relentless" in fight against terrorism: PM

Xinhua, December 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australia must be relentless against the threat of terrorism, Prime Minister (PM) Malcolm Turnbull said on Thursday.

Speaking in the wake of the Victorian Supreme Court sentencing an 18-year-old man who had "every intention" to use home-made pipe bombs in a terror attack on Melbourne to seven years imprisonment, Turnbull said terrorists should face the "full severity of the law."

Turnbull said that sentencing was a matter for the courts to decide and he wouldn't comment on any particular case.

"(But) terrorist offenses should be dealt with with the full severity of the law," Turnbull told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Thursday.

"We need to be relentless in stating our absolute condemnation of terrorism and terrorist activities and people who support terrorist activities."

Turnbull added that under new counter-terrorism laws people convicted of terrorism in Australia could be held in jail beyond their term "if a court concludes they have not been rehabilitated."

The United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the home-made explosive intended to be used by the Melbourne man were similar to those used in the Boston Marathon terror attacks in April 2013 that killed three civilians. Endit