Australia’s most wanted jihadist, Neil Prakash, has been stripped of his Australian citizenship.<\/p>\n
Announcing the move, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton described Prakash as “a very dangerous individual”.<\/p>\n
Intelligence officials say Melbourne-born Prakash was a recruiter for the Islamic State (IS) group and encouraged terrorist plots in Australia.<\/p>\n
He is currently being held in Turkey where he faces trial on terror-related charges.<\/p>\n
In July,\u00a0a Turkish court ruled against extraditing him<\/a>\u00a0to face terrorism charges in his home country.<\/p>\n In Australia, he faces charges of being member of a terrorist organisation as well as supporting and promoting IS.<\/p>\n In a televised new conference, Mr Dutton said Prakash had been central to IS’s efforts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n “If given the opportunity Mr Prakash would harm or kill Australians and our country is a safer place for him having lost his Australian citizenship,” he said.<\/p>\n In 2016, the Australian government described Prakash as “the principal Australian reaching back from the Middle East” into networks in Melbourne and Sydney.<\/p>\n In a court appearance in Turkey in 2017, Prakash admitted he had “something to do” with terrorist plots in Australia but said he was “not 100% responsible”.<\/p>\n He said he had been forced to make IS propaganda videos and that he had fled the group after seeing its “true face”.<\/p>\n Prakash, 27, left Australia for Syria in 2013, taking the name Abu Khaled al-Cambodi. He was mistakenly reported to have been killed in a US air strike in Mosul, Iraq, in 2015.<\/p>\n Through his father, Prakash had joint Australian and Fijian citizenship. Under Australian law, a dual national can be stripped of their citizenship if they are convicted or suspected of terror offences.<\/p>\n Prakash is the 12th dual citizen to be stripped of Australian citizenship.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"