US citizen arrested for instigating ‘religiously motivated’ attack in Australia last year

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – A US citizen was arrested and charged for allegedly encouraging a "religiously motivated terrorist attack" in Australia last year that killed six people, including three attackers, officials said on Wednesday.

The 58-year-old man was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) near Heber Overgaard in Arizona state last week on a US charge that accuses him of inciting violence through comments posted online last December, Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon said at a joint news conference in Brisbane with FBI legal attache for Australia Nitiana Mann, the Australian daily Brisbane Times reported.

The police did not reveal the suspect's name, but if convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

The attack took place at a remote property in Wieambilla, Queensland, on Dec. 12, last year, when two police officers and a bystander were fatally shot by Gareth Train, his brother Nathaniel, and Nathaniel’s wife Stacey in an ambush at the Trains’ property.

Four officers had arrived on the property to investigate reports of a missing person when they met with a hail of gunfire. Two officers managed to escape and raise the alarm.

The three attackers were eventually shot dead by the police after a six-hour gun battle.

“We know the offenders executed a religiously motivated terrorist attack in Queensland. They were motivated by a Christian extremist ideology,” Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon told reporters.

The FBI is still investigating the American’s alleged motive.

According to the investigators, Gareth Train began following the suspect on YouTube in 2020, and a year later, they were communicating directly.