Weapons weren't mine, says 'terrorist' Sydney cabbie
by Martin Chulov from The Australian
Omar al-Hadba, who faces the death penalty in Lebanon on treason charges, claimed that since early last year he had repeatedly asked his friend to remove the weapons. He said he had become increasingly suspicious about one-time Sydney steel-workshop owner Hussein Sabbagh links to radical elements in the Salafi Islamic community in the northern port city of Tripoli. Mr Hadba claimed that in mid-June he delivered for Mr Sabbagh two large travel bags, which he now believed contained weapons, to an apartment block in the Tripoli suburb of Abu Samra, a week before Islamists used the building to launch an attack against approaching Lebanese soldiers ... Belying his claims, a witness to the removal of the weapons by the army, neighbour Mohammed Chawk, who rents a second workshop from the Australian, said weapons were scattered across the floor and bulged from large wooden crates along the back wall. He said soldiers took four hours to remove the weapons, which almost filled two army trucks.