Australia cricketer Usman Khawaja‘s brother has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for framing a colleague in fake terror plot. Arsalan Tariq Anwar has admitted to have forged entries in a notebook of his USNW colleague Kamer Nizamdeen in August 2018 that resulted in the latter being locked up in a maximum security jail.
Arsalan was jealous of Nizamdeen being in contact with a mutual female friend.
He went on to make fake entries about killing prominent politicians and attacking Sydney landmarks in a stolen notebook belonging to Nizamdeen in August 2018.
Nizamdeen was then charged with terror offences and quizzed by detectives for hours and spent a month in an isolation cell.
A NSW District Court on Thursday jailed Arsalan for four-and-a-half years with a non-parole period of two years and six months. The term has been backdated to the time when he was first arrested meaning he will be eligible for parole in June next year.
Arsalan also admitted to have called authorities in 2017 about another innocent man making fake visa and terrorism allegations against him. He also claimed the man, whom he was jealous of, underwent overseas training too.
The judge accepted psychiatric evidence that Arsalan has a borderline personality disorder as a possible explanation why he was involved in such ‘unforgivable’ behaviour.
Nizamdeen returned to Sri Lanka following the incident and has spoken about how his life turned for worse with him also having flashbacks of time spent in the prison. His visa for USA was also cancelled following the allegations and he’s been unable to meet his fiancé who resides there.