A former researcher of the University of Western Australia (UWA) — who is considered by authorities to be one of the Western Australia State (WA)’s most dangerous people — has admitted to inciting extremist attacks overseas, The West Australia reported on August 1.
Federal authorities had reportedly been watching Abdussalam Adina-Zada since February 2020 after they became aware of an “online video-sharing platform account hosting content that called for acts of politically motivated violence” in Tajikistan.
Two months later, Australian Federal Police raided the 54-year-old’s home where they seized a number of electronic devices.
However, it wasn’t until December before the former biochemist was charged with advocating doing a terrorist act, which carries a maximum six-year jail term.
The West Australia says the Tajikistan national was due to stand trial over the offences next year but during a hearing in WA’s District Court on Monday, it was revealed the trial would not be going ahead.
Commonwealth prosecutors reportedly told the court it had dropped two of those charges after Adina-Zada agreed to plead guilty to one count of inciting terrorism. He was due to stand trial on three charges.
Exact details regarding what he said were not read out in court — just that the crime took place between January and March 2019.
Adina-Zada, who claimed on his Linkedin profile that he was a biochemist who worked at UWA as a research associate more than a decade ago, has been behind bars since his arrest.
He is expected to be sentenced later this month.
