Khaled Khayat, 52, and Mahmoud Khayat, 34, who were found guilty of attempting to blow up an Etihad airlines flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi in 2017 have been jailed for at least 27 years.
The Guardian reports: “The plot – which included their older brother Tarek Khayat who fought for Islamic State in Syria – involved blowing up the plane and carrying out a lethal poisonous gas attack. A bomb hidden in a meat grinder was to be put into the luggage of their unsuspecting brother, Amer Khayat, who was flying to Abu Dhabi. But the plan was abandoned when the luggage was found to be overweight at Sydney airport.”
Part of the reason their brother Amer was involved was because he is gay and the brothers felt he brought dishonor to the family.
Said Justice Christine Adamson said on Tuesday: “While no one was physically injured or killed as a consequence of the offense, the offenders nonetheless achieved their aim of creating terror in the minds of members of the public. … Neither offender was particularly close to Amer, although each said he loved him as a brother and spoke to him when he saw him. They disapproved of him because he drank, went clubbing, gambled and was gay which they regarded as bringing shame on the family. … If the plots had gone according to plan, no one in the aircraft carrying the bomb and no one exposed to the poisonous gas would have survived and no one would have had time to say goodbye. The scale of the intended impact adds significantly to the gravity of the offense.”
