> Tue Sep 16, 9:00 AM ET
>
> MELBOURNE, Australia - A jury convicted a seventh man Tuesday of being a
> member of an Australian terrorist cell that prosecutors said plotted to
> attack major sporting events in a bid to kill thousands of people.
>
>
> No attack took place, but prosecutors said the group, based in Australia's
> second-largest city of Melbourne, had identified railway stations and sports
> fields as possible targets for "violent jihad."
> During the long-running trial, prosecutors said the group had talked about
> attacking a football final that attracts close to 100,000 people each year,
> or the Formula One Grand Prix race held annually in the southern city.
>
> They also discussed killing former Prime Minister John Howard, who ordered
> Australian troops to join the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq,
> prosecutors alleged.
>
> Amer Haddara was found guilty by a Supreme Court jury one day after six
> others - including the group's Muslim cleric leader - were convicted of
> being part of the cell in the country's largest terrorist trial.
>
> Haddara, 28, was found not guilty on a second charge of possessing a
> computer linked with preparations for a terrorist act.
>
> The jury was unable to reach a verdict on another defendant, Shane Kent, who
> will face a retrial.
>
> The convicted men - all of whom pleaded not guilty - have yet to be
> sentenced. They face maximum sentences of life in prison. Four other men
> were acquitted in the 115-day trial.
>
> The mufti of Australia, Sheik Fehmi Naji El-Imam, said in a statement that
> the Islamic community was relieved that the trial was over.
>
> "The reaction from the Muslim community to the verdicts is one of mixed
> emotions, as many people know of these men and empathize with the hardship
> that their families have endured to date and will continue to endure beyond
> today," he said in a lengthy statement.
>
> Prosecutors said cell leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika, a 48-year-old
> Algerian-born cleric, urged his followers to launch an attack to force the
> Australian government to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and Iraq and
> that at an attack needed to kill at least 1,000 people to achieve this aim.
>
>