![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9c1ad38bd0b9de4b460c408637380c9f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nFour Melbourne men have been charged with possession of violent extremist material for allegedly accessing and distributing ISIS propaganda online.<\/p>\n
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) alleges the men, aged between 19 and 29, had been “actively engaging” in sharing ISIS-inspired material.<\/p>\n
Adian Sarwari, Azan Syed, Mohammad Ahmadzai and Sulaiman Sarwari today appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court where they were all granted bail in separate hearings.<\/p>\n
The court heard Mr Ahmadzai, 21, is an Australian citizen with no criminal history.<\/p>\n
His defence lawyer, Lucy Massouras, told a magistrate that a “limited” number of videos were found on a phone that was seized by detectives when they raided his home in Roxburgh Park.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The four men appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today. (ABC News: Margaret Burin)<\/p>\n
“There are some and they are disturbing,” Ms Massouras said. “It’s conceded the prosecution case is a strong one.”<\/p>\n
Commonwealth prosecutors opposed bail and described the content allegedly found on Mr Ahmadzai’s devices as “particularly serious” and “gruesome”.<\/p>\n
The court heard his co-accused, Mr Sarwari, also had no criminal convictions.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old was supported in court by his wife, who wept as he was granted bail with a $10,000 surety.<\/p>\n
A detective from the Australian Federal Police told the court that Mr Sarwari, from Clyde North, was accused of sending links via WhatsApp, which contained Islamic State material and depicted “serious violence”.<\/p>\n
The men must abide by strict bail conditions such as reporting to a police station.<\/p>\n
The group will return to court in July.<\/p>\n
Investigations stemmed from airport luggage check<\/p>\n
The AFP, Australian Border Force and Victoria Police announced the charges on Friday afternoon and provided details of an investigation that began in November 2024 following a luggage check at Melbourne Airport.<\/p>\n
During the luggage check police located “suspicious content” on the mobile phone of a Roxburgh Park man who was travelling to Turkey, with the phone later seized.<\/p>\n
Police then intercepted another Roxburgh Park man at Melbourne Airport in June 2025, who was departing to Turkey. His phone was also seized after police found suspicious content.<\/p>\n
The two men had been allegedly sending extremist material including ISIS propaganda on their phones, police said.<\/p>\n
Authorities made the arrests on Thursday following a police search of four homes in the Melbourne suburbs of Roxburgh Park, Clyde South and Meadow Heights.<\/p>\n
During one of the searches an AFP firearm was unintentionally discharged, but no-one was injured, the AFP said.<\/p>\n
Authorities said investigators seized electronic devices during the searches that would undergo forensic examination.<\/p>\n
Possession of violent extremist material carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.<\/p>\n
A fifth man, 21, was also arrested during the searches and was released pending further inquiries.<\/p>\n
AFP counter terrorism commander Paula Hudson said it was critical for authorities to intervene as early as possible.<\/p>\n
“We allege these men were actively engaging in the sharing of this material inspired by ISIS, a terrorist organisation responsible for mass killings, and violent religious persecution,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We know that intervening early helps to ensure individuals are disrupted before they reach the most serious levels of offending and prevent any potential for escalation to violence.<\/p>\n
“The disruption sends a clear message \u2014 the AFP, together with our state, Commonwealth and international law enforcement partners are watching, and we will not tolerate any type of hatred in our community.”<\/p>\n
The AFP said its investigation remained ongoing and was being assisted by the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four Melbourne men have been charged with possession of violent extremist material for allegedly accessing and distributing ISIS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-658828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}