Three new charges of financing the terrorist organisation Islamic State have been lodged against accused Sydney terrorism plotter Omarjan Azari.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But Mr Azari's barrister has slammed widely reported rumours that his client was part of a plan to behead a civilian in Martin Place, saying "there is absolutely no evidence of such a thing".
Mr Azari, 22, was the only person charged in the September raids in Sydney which involved 800 state and federal officers.
He was charged then with conspiring to plan or prepare a terrorist act, which police allege was intended to "shock, horrify and terrify the community".
Sections of the media subsequently reported that Mr Azari was part of a plot to behead a member of the public in Martin Place.
Central Local Court heard on Friday that, following further police raids this week, Mr Azari was charged with two counts of "knowingly making funds available to a terrorist organisation" and one count of "attempting to make funds available to a terrorist organisation".
Fairfax Media understands that the new charges relate to the alleged transfer of funds by Mr Azari at a Western Union office in Parramatta, and a number of phone calls with Australia's most senior member of ISIS, Mohammad Ali Baryalei.
Mr Azari's barrister Steve Boland said a "significant body of new material" had been served on the defence in relation to the new charges.
But he was scathing of suggestions that Mr Azari had ever been part of a plan to behead a member of the public in Martin Place.
"Despite significant media reporting that there was a plot centring on Martin Place, it's emerged that the Crown have absolutely no evidence of such a thing," Mr Boland said.
"It's unclear how this got into the media and who's responsible, but the Crown Prosecutor will presumably be trying to find out."
He said Mr Azari was now facing a trial by jury in circumstances where there had been "a large amount of misinformation" and called on the Crown to concede that it's previous comments in court about a "gruesome execution" were wrong.
"If the prosecution wish to say that there's a gruesome methodology we would ask them to produce the evidence," he said.
But Commonwealth Crown Prosecutor, Michael Allnutt refused to concede that he had provided any misinformation to the court or the media.
"I may have used those words [gruesome execution]," Mr Allnutt said.
"But the prosecution have never suggested that something was going to occur in Martin Place."
Mr Azari is expected to apply for bail on February 24.
