Melbourne Man Charged With Disseminating Thousands of Islamic State Propaganda Files Online

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Authorities in Australia have charged a man in Melbourne with pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and distributing thousands of pieces of extremist material online over a span of several years.

He is the seventh person to be arrested in the state of Victoria since May on allegations involving the possession or distribution of Islamic State content online. Australian Federal Police said they have not linked this latest arrest to the previous six and would not confirm whether the man’s case is believed to be connected.

The 65-year-old Australian citizen, whose name has not been released, was scheduled to appear in a Melbourne court later Wednesday. He faces charges of being a member of a terrorist organization and transmitting violent extremist material through an encrypted messaging application, which authorities did not name.

The offenses carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Authorities say the man sent approximately 10,000 files containing extremist material between 2015 and 2020, including content depicting executions, torture, and Islamic State propaganda. Federal police also allege he shared information on evading detection by law enforcement, as well as instructional guides on planning and carrying out mass casualty attacks.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Paula Hudson told reporters in Canberra that the scale and scope of the material distributed by the man “placed him as a principal distributor of ISIS propaganda within the group.”

“The material glorified acts of violence and terrorism, spreading hateful ideology that is designed to radicalize others,” Hudson said.

The investigation into the man began when border officials inspected his luggage as he departed Australia for a six-month trip to Egypt in 2020, authorities said. He is not known to have traveled abroad since then and has not been linked to any attack or plot, Hudson said.

Earlier this month, a 30-year-old Melbourne man was arrested and charged with possessing violent extremist content while attempting to leave Australia for the Middle East, authorities said. Federal police allege he was part of an online group chat with five other men from Victoria who were arrested in May and all face charges related to possessing extremist material, including Islamic State propaganda.

The Islamic State group has been significantly weakened since a 2019 United States-led military intervention drove it from territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria, but its cells remain active and it has inspired a number of independent attacks, including in Western countries. In Australia, authorities allege that a mass shooting at a Hanukkah event in 2025, in which two men are accused of killing 15 Jewish people, was motivated by the shooters’ Islamic State affiliations.

According to a website for Australia’s national security agencies, an estimated 200 Australians traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State group between 2012 and 2019. Dozens more are believed to have “assisted” the group by supporting those overseas or by planning or carrying out terrorist attacks in Australia, the website says.

Source link