Convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benribka could be released from Victoria jail in November

Australia’s first convicted terrorist leader could be released from jail within months.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 60, has spent the last 18 years behind bars in a Victorian prison but could be back out on the streets as soon as November.

Benbrika plotted to blow up the MCG on Grand Final Day and carry out terrorist attacks in Melbourne and Sydney and assassinate then-Prime Minister John Howard.

He was charged in 2005 and then given a 15-year jail term in 2009 before his sentence expired in 2020.

Benbrika was then held back for another three years due to a post-detention order after fears were raised he would re-offend if he was released from jail.

Australia’s first convicted terrorist leader could be released from jail within months

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The Commonwealth is now seeking to place him on an ­extended supervision order with an application to be made as early as Monday.

Extended supervision orders are usually given to inmates once they leave jail indicating that authorities are preparing to release Benbrika back into society.

The orders were introduced in 2021 and granted power to authorities to maintain close supervision of high-risk terrorism offenders, The Australian reported.

Benbrika will be monitored 24 hours a day with his telephone, online activity, friends and movements closely watched by police.

He will also need to attend deradicalis­ation programs as part of the strict supervision order.

Benbrika was deemed an ongoing threat and detained for another three years based on a terrorism assessment tool known as VERA-2R.

VERA-2R is short for Violent Extremism Risk Assessment and it has been used by counter-terrorism experts and psychologists to assess convicted terrorists.

Home Affairs has described it as a valuable method of determining whether a convicted terrorist is still considered to be a risk on their release.

The method has sparked criticism with concerns raised it could be used to jail someone without them having to commit a crime.

Leading academic Emily Corner was commissioned to make a report on the method before handing it to Home Affairs in May 2020.

Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Grant Donaldson SC said there were some serious concerns about its ‘validity and reliability’.

Benbrika plotted to blow up the MCG on Grand Final Day and carry out terrorist attacks in Melbourne and Sydney and assassinate then-Prime Minister John Howard (stock image)

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Benbrika’s lawyers have questioned the validity of the tool and have started legal action in a bid to get their client released from prison. 

Benbrika completed his 15-year sentence on November 5, 2020 but was kept in custody after the Victorian Supreme Court found he still held extremist views and had a high risk of reoffending.

Benbrika had appealed to the High Court, where his lawyers argued the law was punishing him for what he hypothetically could do, not what he had done.

Victorian Judge Andrew Tinney said Benbrika had received visits in jail from people who then went and fought overseas.

‘If the defendant had been visited by one seemingly problematic person many years ago, that would be one thing,’ he said, the ABC reports.

‘But he was visited by 15 problematic individuals over some years from the time of his incarceration.’

The Algerian-born terrorist who arrived in Australian in 1989, became the country’s first convicted terrorist leader.

Benbrika once said his group of followers needed to kill at least 1,000 non-believers to make the Australian government withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

In police recordings from 2005, Benrika was heard telling followers: ‘If we want to die for jihad, we have to have maximum damage. Maximum damage. Damage their buildings, everything. Damage their lives’. 

The Australian government cancelled Benbrika’s citizenship in 2020.

Then-Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said Benbrika would be sent back to Algeria once he is released.