A Sydney father who desperately tried to prevent his son travelling to Syria has criticised authorities who failed to stop the young man and later charged him with foreign incursion offences.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Gaven Biber begged police and government agencies to intervene four times in the weeks before Mehmet Biber flew to Turkey and crossed into Syria with insurgents Ahrar al-Sham in July 2013.
"I felt like I was betraying my son each time but I wanted to save him from being killed or ending up in serious trouble.
"I fear that the only outcome of my attempts was to bring Mehmet to the attention of the police which led to his ultimate arrest."
Mehmet Biber, then 20, was among a group of young Australian men, supported by terrorist recruiter Hamdi Alqudsi, who joined rebel groups fighting against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
He told the NSW District Court he went because he was distressed by images of Syrians suffering in the civil war and "just wanted to help".
While he had been willing to fight, he never made it to the front line and instead spent weeks at a rural guesthouse where he got bored because the men were doing "literally nothing", he said.
Biber left the group and returned to Australia after he was caught in Turkey with an expired visa in February 2014.
He was arrested during counter-terrorism raids in 2016 and pleaded guilty to entering a foreign country with intent to engage in hostile activity, which carries a maximum 20-year jail term.
In an affidavit tendered in court, Gaven Biber said he didn't want his son going near the "unstable and dangerous" region when he first voiced concern for Syrian refugees in late 2012.
Mr Biber said his son spoke of helping as tensions over the civil war simmered among young Muslims and his school, Parramatta High School, had become a "religious hothouse".
He eventually stopped speaking of his desire to travel overseas, but his father worried his intention remained.
Mr Biber went to Merrylands police station in mid-June of 2013 and told an officer he was worried his son was going to travel to Syria. He was told to go to federal police.
Mr Biber phoned the Australian Federal Police, telling them he was concerned because the region was "unstable and dangerous" and didn't know what to do.
"You have to do something," he told an officer. "Stop him at the airport. Warn him."
Police said they couldn't stop him.
Biber boarded a plane without his parents' knowledge on July 1.
Mr Biber went to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who referred him back to the AFP.
He and his brother then drove to the Turkish Consulate, where a staff member said he'd file a report.
Mr Biber recalled former NSW deputy police commissioner Catherine Burn publicly encouraged family members and friends to let police know if they noticed changes in a person's behaviour at the time of his son's arrest. "Let us help you so you can help them," she had said.
He felt he did more than could be expected of any father to engage with authorities and avert his son's dangerous journey. "All it has [brought] us is agony."
Mr Biber said his son returned from Syria "subdued not inspired by the experience" and knew he was lucky to get out alive.
He told Fairfax Media any parents who held similar concerns for their children should make sure authorities took them seriously and ensure they got the help police had promised.
"It's extremely frustrating and unfortunate the assistance [former Deputy Commissioner Burn] mentioned was never applied to us."
Biber will be sentenced on Friday.
