Arabic version: توجيه تهم لرجل على خلفية تهديدات مزعومة معادية للسامية في أقصى شمال كوينزلاند

According to ABC News, a 52-year-old man has been charged with two counts of making threats aggravated by serious vilification or hate crime circumstances following a police investigation in Far North Queensland. Police allege the charges relate to abusive, threatening and antisemitic content directed at a religious organisation whose name was not disclosed.

The Australian Federal Police and Queensland Police Service said officers were responding to complaints concerning ideologically motivated threats of violence. The man was arrested last Thursday on the Captain Cook Highway in the McAllister Range area, at the northern approaches to Cairns, after police searched a property in Mossman in the Douglas Shire, about 70 kilometres north-west of Cairns.

AFP Detective Superintendent Anthony Conway said detectives had been following reports of ideologically motivated threats while investigating the man’s activities. He said harm to social cohesion at a local community level ultimately affected Australia’s national security, adding that authorities would not allow divisive and hateful rhetoric to grow and spread more widely.

Queensland Police Counter-Terrorism Investigation Group Detective Superintendent Heath Hutchings said the joint QPS-AFP Hate Crime Team had uncovered matters with the potential to affect community safety. He said combining the agencies’ expertise, legislative capabilities and investigative resources better positioned them to identify and respond to complex and emerging threats.

Investigations are continuing. The man is scheduled to face the charges for the first time in Cairns Magistrates Court on September 21.