Sydney Terror Suspects Convicted

Five men have been found guilty in Sydney, Australia, of conspiring to commit terrorist attacks, BBC reported.

A jury deliberated for 23 days before convicting them on charges including possessing chemicals for explosives and instructions to make bombs.

The maximum sentence for the offences is life in prison.

Prosecutors said the men were arrested in raids on their homes in 2005 and planned to commit violence to alter Australia's policy on the Middle East.

There were angry scenes outside the specially designed court in Parramatta as supporters of the convicted men scuffled with members of the press.

The trial began in November 2008 and lasted more than 170 days.

Prosecutor Richard Maidment told the jury the defendants were planning to commit "extreme violence" to try to change Australian foreign policy.

Mr Maidment had said: "They were motivated to pursue what they probably saw as a religious cause, that is that of jihad."

The specific targets of attack were not revealed.

The names of the man cannot be given for legal reasons.

They showed little emotion on hearing the verdict and were remanded in custody to reappear on 14 December.

The raids on the homes yielded terror-related material, prosecutors said.

The BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says the men were arrested four years ago, following tip offs from hardware store and gun shop owners, whose suspicions were raised when the men started to order unusually high amounts of chemicals and guns.

Prosecutors said one defendant had attended a training camp in Pakistan of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group and had set up a paramilitary style camp in rural New South Wales to train three of the other men.

Justice Anthony Whealy praised the jury for their diligence and integrity.