on โ12-07-2014 11:28 AM
Australian convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf reportedly continued to receive a disability pension months after arriving on the battlefields of Syria.
Sharrouf, who fled Australia for Syria using his brother's passport on December 6, continued to receive his disability support pension at least until February, about two months after he left Australia to join insurgents fighting the Syrian government, The Weekend Australian says.
The newspaper says revelations that the former Sydney man was paid his regular disability cheque - about $766 a fortnight - long after authorities knew he was gone raise the possibility that the taxpayer may have been inadvertently funding his activities.
It is not clear if Sharrouf accessed the money, the newspaper says, but his journey to Syria took him through Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey, countries where he would have had ready access to any money paid into his bank account.
Sharrouf was jailed in 2005 for nearly four years for possessing six clocks and 140 batteries connected to a terrorist conspiracy in which 18 men were convicted over plans to attack targets in NSW and Victoria.
He's come full circle hasn't he?
The parents come here to escape war and terror and give their kids a better life. Then the kids go back to the old country keep the viscious circle going.
All at Aussie taxpayers expense.
Very disappointing.
on โ12-07-2014 12:40 PM
Further to Mr Grizz's comment:
You people don't see anything wrong with a young man, born in this country, of refugees who came to this country to escape war and strife and terror, an Australian citizen, drawing a disability pension, going back to that country to fight against our armed forces?
You've chosen to ignore this bit at the bottom of the article:
Sharrouf was jailed in 2005 for nearly four years for possessing six clocks and 140 batteries connected to a terrorist conspiracy in which 18 men were convicted over plans to attack targets in NSW and Victoria.
Here's The Link Again In Case You Missed It First Time
This young man was born in Australia. What influences did he have growing up to make him turn against the country of his birth, is another question you might want to ask, before you trivialise this offence to a "few batteries" bought with his disability pension.
And are these infuences actively recruiting other young men like Khaled?
on โ12-07-2014 12:41 PM
โ12-07-2014 12:42 PM - edited โ12-07-2014 12:45 PM
on โ12-07-2014 12:42 PM
Obviously you have never spent time in uniform.
Persons who are employed on combat operations require of level of physical and mental fitness far in excess of what is required of persons in the general workforce.
Therefore I simply canโt come to grips with the obvious tension between the facts that on the one hand he is so disabled that he canโt work at all, but at the same time he can survive in one of the most hostile environments on the planet (a war zone).
That is either he is incredibly lucky or he has a far great capacity to undertake strenuous activities than he had lead his doctors here to believe.
on โ12-07-2014 12:44 PM
He's probably one of the few that have rorted the system. DSP recipients have been painted with the " financial burden" brush by the government and will be their next "target" in a couple of months time after the McClure Report is handed down.
on โ12-07-2014 12:50 PM
The 33-year-oldโs trial was complicated by his schizophrenia, which was ยญdescribed by a psychiatrist at his trial as โfairly disablingโโ and resulted in psychotic episodes when not controlled by anti-psychotic drugs.
on โ12-07-2014 12:52 PM
I wish Newscorp would inform us about the TPP news instead of this continuous cycle of rehashing divisive stories that achieve nothing other than increased bigotry and racism.
on โ12-07-2014 12:53 PM
on โ12-07-2014 12:53 PM
@bluecat*dancing wrote:
The 33-year-oldโs trial was complicated by his schizophrenia, which was ยญdescribed by a psychiatrist at his trial as โfairly disablingโโ and resulted in psychotic episodes when not controlled by anti-psychotic drugs.
so, that is an explanation in itself for what he has done and is doing.
on โ12-07-2014 12:55 PM
Under normal circumstances a disability support pension can be cancelled if the recipient is overseas for six weeks.
Ms Payne said the law as it stood did not allow authorities to cancel the payments of Australians suspected of involvement in criminal or extremist behaviour.