Melbourne man charged over alleged role as IS online propagandist

A 65-year-old Australian man has been arrested in Melbourne and charged with terrorism offences over allegations that he acted as an online propagandist for the Islamic State group, federal police said on Wednesday.

The man, an Australian citizen whose name has not been released, is accused of being a member of a terrorist organisation and of transmitting violent extremist material through an encrypted messaging app that authorities did not identify. He was due to appear in a Melbourne court later on Wednesday. The offences carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

According to the Australian Federal Police, forensic examination of the man's devices showed he had pledged allegiance to the group, also known as ISIS, and had sent about 10,000 files containing extremist content between November 2015 and July 2020. The material is alleged to include videos, photographs, audio recordings and documents dealing with executions, mass murder, torture and propaganda, as well as guidance on evading law enforcement and instructional material on carrying out mass casualty attacks.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Paula Hudson, who heads counter-terrorism duties for the force, told reporters in Canberra that the volume and reach of the material made the man a principal distributor of the group's propaganda. She said the content glorified violence and terrorism and was designed to radicalise others, adding that terrorist propaganda should not be treated as harmless online content because groups such as ISIS depend on online platforms to spread their message and recruit supporters.

The investigation began in 2020, when border officials examined the man's luggage as he was leaving Australia for what was planned as a six-month trip to Egypt. Police said he is not known to have travelled overseas since then and has not been linked to any attack or plot.

The arrest is the seventh in Victoria state since May over allegations of possessing or distributing Islamic State content online. Federal police did not connect the latest case to the earlier six arrests and declined to say whether they believed the matters were related. Earlier this month, a 30-year-old Melbourne man was charged with possessing violent extremist content as he attempted to leave Australia for the Middle East; police have alleged he was part of an online group chat with five other Victorian men arrested in May.

Although the Islamic State group has been significantly weakened and dispersed since a United States-led military campaign drove it from territory it held in Iraq and Syria in 2019, its cells remain active and it has inspired attacks in several countries, including in the West. Australian authorities have alleged that a mass shooting at a Hanukkah event in 2025, in which two men are accused of killing 15 Jewish people, was motivated by the shooters' affiliations with the group. According to the website of Australia's national security agencies, about 200 Australians travelled to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State between 2012 and 2019, while dozens more supported the group by assisting those overseas or by planning or carrying out attacks in Australia.