Convicted ISIS Insurgency Planner to Walk Free Sunday, No Bid to Keep Him Locked Up

A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a mural bearing the logo of the Islamic State terrorist group in a tunnel that was reportedly used as a training center by the extremists in the village of Albu Sayf, Iraq, on March 1, 2017. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images

A Sydney man jailed for planning an ISIS insurgency in Australia will be released on Nov. 1 (Sunday) without any application to keep him behind bars, Senate Estimates has heard.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Deputy Commissioner Hilda Sirec told the hearing on Oct. 27 that the agency had instead applied to the Federal Court for an interim control order on Isaac El Matari.

“That is our responsibility in regards to engaging and mitigating the threat that relates to the release of Mr. El Matari,” she said.

A control order imposes obligations, prohibitions, and restrictions on a person after release. An interim order is the first step, with a final order argued and decided later.

When Liberal Senator Leah Blyth asked whether El Matari would be freed on Nov. 1, Sirec replied, “That is the end of his head sentence,” meaning the full prison term handed down by the court.

Blyth then asked whether anyone had applied for a continuing detention order, which would allow a court to keep a convicted terrorist in prison after their sentence ends. Only the home affairs minister can apply for one (pdf).

“We don’t apply for continuing detention orders in the AFP. That is a matter for Department of Home Affairs, but we do apply for interim control orders,” Sirec said.

Blyth said the Attorney-General’s Department and Home Affairs had both told her to speak to the AFP. Sirec confirmed there had been no instruction to seek continuing detention.

El Matari, who declared himself commander of ISIS in Australia, was sentenced in 2021 to seven years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to planning a local IS insurgency, including plans to import assault rifles. He had earlier been arrested in Lebanon in 2017, at age 18, for trying to join ISIS (pdf).

The control order and continuing detention schemes are due to lapse on Dec. 7 this year unless Parliament renews them.

A bill introduced on Aug. 12 would extend both schemes to Dec. 7, 2029, and strengthen control orders. Parliament’s intelligence and security committee recommended the bill be passed in a report tabled on Oct. 14.

Liberal MP Andrew Wallace told Parliament the government proposed to make control orders the main way of placing conditions on serious terrorist offenders after release.

Breaches of control orders have been common. By April 2022, the AFP had charged eight people with breaching their orders since July 2020, which it said was around 75 percent of those released on control orders.

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