Wannabe IS fighter Moudasser Taleb walks free from NSW jail

A young Sydney man who was stopped at Sydney Airport when trying to join Islamic State in Syria has walked free from jail on a five-year good behaviour bond.

Moudasser Taleb had a bag of military-style clothing but no plane ticket and little money when he was arrested at the airport on June 15, 2017.

Two years later, the 24-year-old is free after he was sentenced to time already served in custody and placed on a conditional bond.

“I’d like to thank the judge for releasing me and I just want to put all of this behind me and move on with my life,” he told reporters on Friday.

“I don’t want to talk about (the crime). I just want to move on.”

Taleb had pleaded not guilty to preparing to engage in overseas warfare, with his lawyers arguing he was mentally ill at the time.

But a jury in April rejected that after hearing Taleb had used code words and had videos on his phone of beheadings, people with IS flags and battlefields.

NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Hamill on Friday stressed the young man clearly knew what he was doing was illegal, but added he wouldn’t have headed to the airport without the sophisticated undercover police sting that - “entirely appropriately” - encouraged and facilitated his crime.

The judge said Taleb’s schizophrenia, only diagnosed in custody, had impacted his moral culpability and made him more vulnerable to extremist ideology.

Justice Hamill used his 16,000-word sentence to take a pre-emptive swing at “professional critics of the court” who might slam his decision, saying the complex circumstances of the case “cry out for a sentence that fosters this young and mentally ill offender’s rehabilitation”.

“In many cases, the better way to protect society is to foster the rehabilitation of the offender even where the result appears to be a lenient one and may prove to be unpopular amongst commentators who appear to take the view that no sentence is ever long enough,” Justice Hamill said

The judge said Taleb was “an inappropriate vehicle” for a sentence of general deterrence.

The lengthy bond includes stringent conditions. For the first two years, Taleb must not use messaging app Telegram, access any material controlled by IS or any other group espousing radical Islam and continue treatment for his mental illness.

Taleb’s interest in Islam became intense after an episode in hospital in 2014. He was already interested in joining IS in the Middle East before undercover police made contact in March 2017.

At the advice of the operative, Taleb bought military clothing, a sleeping bag, tactical gloves and a solar power charge.

He also began training to walk long distances with a backpack and tried to send $300 to someone he thought was in Syria.

Justice Hamill noted that in one conversation, Taleb was asked to consider what to do if he was turned away from the airport before the operative implied domestic terrorism was an option.

“I can just look after my mum,” Taleb replied.

Several of his recorded conversations noted his concern for his mother, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. Taleb was her full-time carer until his arrest in June 2017.

Taleb initially sat with his arms crossed during Friday’s sentencing but smiled at his lawyer when he later realised he was to be freed.

“Good luck, Mr Taleb,” Justice Hamill said as he left the courtroom.