{"id":43669,"date":"2020-04-23T08:06:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T08:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=43669"},"modified":"2021-12-19T09:50:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T09:50:40","slug":"the-colleague-the-girl-the-police-student-framed-and-imprisoned-over-terror-offences-tells-whole-story-for-the-first-time-by-avani-dias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/the-colleague-the-girl-the-police-student-framed-and-imprisoned-over-terror-offences-tells-whole-story-for-the-first-time-by-avani-dias\/","title":{"rendered":"The colleague, the girl, the police: Student framed and imprisoned over terror offences tells whole story for the first time: By Avani Dias"},"content":{"rendered":"

The colleague, the girl, the police: Student framed and imprisoned over terror offences tells whole story for the first time: By Avani Dias<\/span><\/h1>\n

\"Mohamed<\/p>\n

\n

Mohamed Nizamdeen was charged with terrorism offences<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Source:-<\/span>ABC (Triple J Hack)<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen was held in solitary confinement for a month on terror offences, only to be released after police admitted they’d arrested the wrong person.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It emerged the 25-year-old Muslim man’s colleague had framed Kamer because he was jealous of his friendship with a young woman.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In his first in-depth interview since he was arrested, Kamer has told Hack what it was like the day his life suddenly changed. He went from holding down an ordinary office job to being a suspect in a police terror investigation, without access to a lawyer for five days. He went from a sharehouse to sitting in a cell next door to hardened criminals.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Having returned to Sri Lanka, he says the ordeal has ruined his life. Police have not apologised and maintain they were protecting the public.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

‘A shy and friendly kid’<\/span><\/h3>\n

Mike Glending was at work on August 31, 2018, when he saw a photo of one of his former young interns accompanying the top news story. It said a budding IT business analyst, Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen, had planned terror attacks like bombing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and killing the prime minister at the time, Malcolm Turnbull. Mike took a screenshot of the article and sent it to his old team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the terrifying plans Mohamed \u2014 who was known to his friends as Kamer \u2014 was accused of creating, Mike was quick to jump to his defence. “I felt like it was a mistake for sure, I said that to quite a few people, that it definitely wasn’t in his character. I knew the guy, he was never aggressive … he was just a shy and friendly kid.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Kamer, who was 25 at the time of his arrest, had been working at the University of New South Wales’s IT department. He had studied Commerce at the uni as an international student, built up a resume interning on the campus, and eventually got a job there as well. Kamer’s colleagues, friends and family thought of him as a laid-back, friendly, caring person who loved to party and hang out with his big group of friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kamer's<\/p>\n

Kamer’s mother and father had visited him in Sydney before his arrest.<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\"<\/div>\n
\"<\/div>\n
\n

Crucial to the case that would eventually upend Kamer’s life was an object that everyone has on their desks: an A4 notebook.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kamer’s had a yellow cover, and he would use it at work to write down notes and take to meetings. “It was general use for a notebook at work … I didn’t really pay much attention to it,” he told\u00a0Hack<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A month before his arrest, Kamer had flown to Sri Lanka for a family reunion. When he returned from overseas, he didn’t notice the notebook was missing. “I really didn’t care. There wasn’t anything that I felt should be important in that book. I just continued with my normal day-to-day stuff.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The arrest<\/span><\/h3>\n

On August 30, Kamer went out to lunch with his colleagues and on his way down from the 11th floor of the IT building, he noticed a man who kept looking at him. “There was this one guy, he was giving me a really weird look and he was on the phone, but he kept glancing at me a lot. I didn’t pay much attention to it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

What happened next played out like a plot in a Hollywood movie.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When we stepped out of the cafe, this bunch of people approached us and there was this lady in front and she asked me if my name was Mohamed Nizamdeen,” Kamer said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The detective asked if he had lost a notebook.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I said, ‘No, I can’t remember’. And then she said, ‘There has been a notebook found with your name on it, that has very threatening and alarming notes and we would like to get you down at the police station to ask you about that.'”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n