Australia court sentences IS supporter to 38 years in jail

A supporter of the Islamic State group who helped a teenager kill a police accountant in Sydney was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Friday, as Australia's prime minister argued for greater government power to strip extremists of citizenship.

Milad Atai had pleaded guilty to assisting and encouraging Iranian-born Farhad Jabar, 15, to shoot Curtis Cheng as he walked from the police building on 2 October, 2015.

Atai also pleaded guilty to helping Jabar's older sister Shadi Jabar Khalil Mohammed fly to Syria a day earlier. Jabar was shot dead by police, and a year later the sister died with her Sudanese husband in an airstrike in Syria.

Justice Peter Johnson of the New South Wales state Supreme Court ordered Atai, 22, to serve a minimum 28 and a half years behind bars before he becomes eligible for parole. Johnson said Atai had supported extreme jihad for several months before the shooting and appeared to still hold radical views.

As Atai was led away from court, he raised an index finger in the direction of the judge in an Islamic State salute.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday outlined legislation to strip Australian citizenship from any one convicted of a terrorism offence. He wants the legislation passed before Parliament goes into recess for the year on 6 December.

Australia's current Citizenship Act allows authorities to revoke citizenship from people jailed for six years or more for terrorist activities, but only if they are already dual nationals.

Morrison called these limits "unrealistic" and said the law should be broadened so that anyone convicted of a terrorist offence, even native-born Australians, could be expelled.

The Law Council of Australia has warned the amendments could breach Australia's international obligations by leaving people stateless.

Morrison said on Friday that extremists stripped of their citizenship could languish indefinitely in immigration detention if they could not be deported.

"If they are in a position not to be deported, they will remain in immigration detention," Morrison told the Seven Network television. "Their citizenship should go if you commit a terrorist act in Australia."

Attorney-General Christian Porter acknowledged some countries would refuse to take their citizens back.

The extremist threat to Australia was highlighted two weeks ago when a Somali-born Australian, whom police say was inspired by the Islamic State group, fatally stabbed one man and injured two others before police shot the assailant dead on a downtown Melbourne street.

This week, three Australian men of Turkish descent were charged with planning an Islamic State group-inspired mass-casualty attack in Melbourne, which would likely have happened over the busy Christmas period. Police said the plot had been thwarted with the arrests.