PERTH, Australia – A British-born Muslim convert convicted for his role in plotting to bomb the Israeli Embassy (search) in Australia's capital was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison.
Perth District Court judge Paul Healy (search) said Jack Roche (search), the first person convicted for terrorism in Australia, should serve a period of 41/2 without parole, backdated to start when Roche was taken into custody — that means Roche could be free in about three years.
Earlier, prosecutor Ron Davies described Roche's plot as an affront to Australian values, and called for a sentence approaching the 25-year maximum to serve as "a dramatic deterrent.'
"He's planned to bring these ideas, these people who are the scourge of the modern, civilized world, back into his own country," Davies said.
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