Alleged Islamic State recruiter extradited to Australia

Sydney, Australia (AFP):

An alleged ISIS fighter who was apparently part of the group’s recruitment campaign will be charged with “serious terror offences” after being extradited to Australia from Turkiye.

Neil Christopher Prakash, 31, was arrested in Turkiye in 2016 after crossing into the country from Syria.

Prakash was sentenced in 2019 to seven years imprisonment by a Turkish court, which found him guilty of belonging to a “terrorist organisation.”

Australian Federal Police (AFP) said Prakash arrived in Australia by plane on Friday morning.

“An investigation started in 2016 when the man was alleged to have travelled to Syria to fight with ISIS,” it said in a statement.

“The AFP will allege in court that the man committed a range of serious terrorism offences.”

Authorities have estimated some 230 Australians travelled to Iraq and Syria to take up arms since 2012 — Prakash being one of them.

He featured in ISIS recruitment videos in which he urged Australians to “wake up” and join the group.

Prakash, who converted from Buddhism to Islam, was disillusioned with rampant Islamophobia and social injustice and ended up joining the militant group — like many other young Muslims living as marginalized minorities in Western countries.

Prakash was described by former conservative prime minister Malcolm Turnbull as one of the “key financiers or organisers” for the group in the Middle East.

Former Australian attorney-general George Brandis in 2016 said Prakash had been killed in Iraq following a targeted US air strike.

It was later confirmed that he was wounded but not killed.