JERUSALEM — Two Lebanese-Australian brothers were sentenced to decades of prison time for their roles in a 2017 bombing plot of an airliner that was foiled with the help of Israeli intelligence.
Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat targeted an Etihad Airways flight from Sydney to the United Arab Emirates. The New South Wales Supreme Court handed down terms of 40 and 36 years, respectively, on Tuesday.
They had sent a third brother, Amer, to the airport with the disguised bomb, but he was unaware of the true nature of the item in his luggage and did not receive jail time, The Telegraph reported.
Israel was able to warn the Australians through its army unit that handles signals intelligence and has been compared to the National Security Agency in the United States, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.
According to Australia’s ABC News, a fourth brother, identified as Tarek Khayat, a member of the Islamic State who lives abroad, also was involved in the plot.
The brothers had chosen to send the explosives with Amer, The Telegraph reported, “because he drank, went clubbing, gambled and was gay.”