Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Prakash’s path to terrorism
How did Australian Islamic State terrorist Neil Prakash wind up in a Turkish prison on terror related charges?
August 13, 2017
NEIL PRAKASH: FROM BUDDHIST TO TERRORIST
* A Melbourne-born man of Fijian and Cambodian descent and was raised as a Buddhist
* Converted to Islam and attended the controversial al-Furqan Islamic Centre in Melbourne
* Left Australia in 2013 to join the Islamic State in Syria
* Went by the jihadi name Abu Khaled al-Cambodi and appeared in IS propaganda videos
* His Australian passport was cancelled in October 2014 and federal police issued a warrant for his arrest through Interpol in August 2015.
* Recruited would-be terrorists in Australia
* Linked to a failed Melbourne plot to behead a police officer on Anzac Day in 2015 and Numan Haider, the 18-year-old who was killed after stabbing two police officers in 2014.
* The US announced Prakash was killed in a drone strike in April 2016
* Captured by Turkish authorities trying to cross from Syria using false documents on October 24
* Currently in prison in Turkey on terror related charges
* Awaiting extradition to Australia