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Did cops try to suppress stories by a sacked bikie-turned-journo? · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, September 8, 2026.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: The mysterious Mahmood Fazal, a bikey-turned-journalist who was hired and
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: then fired by the ABC, is at the centre of
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: another drama. Did the Australian Federal Police try to suppress
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: his work as a reporter?
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: That's today's story.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: An offensive from the fringes has been launched against mainstream society.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: The newest member of the BB team, Mahmoud Fazal.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Mahmoud, welcome.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: It's taken months of negotiation to arrange this meeting with
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: the man police are hunting.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: The story that the ABC just cannot make go away
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: is their decision to hire a former bikey called Mahmoud Fazal.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: The ABC has now taken down more than five pieces
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: of journalism created by Mahmoud Fazal during his short-lived stint
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: at the broadcaster. But there are still stories to be
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: told about Mahmoud Fazal. The Australian's Michael McKenna has been
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: investigating a piece of journalism that Fazal was involved in
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: way back in 2021. Michael, we move on quickly in journalism,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: don't we? I can imagine that at the ABC, they
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: thought this nightmare was behind them, but it's very much not.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: What have you found out about that story back in
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: 2021 that Mahmoud Fazal did?
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Claire, he did a story.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: I think it was one of his first major reporting
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: pieces for the podcast program, Background Briefing. And it was titled,
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: What's It Like to Face Terrorism Charges? It was a
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: sympathetic piece about a man who had been, in fact,
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: charged with financing terrorists, and those charges were dropped. Later,
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: the charges that stuck that he pleaded guilty to were
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: to funding foreign incursions. He didn't name that man. He
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: gave him a pseudonym of Imran. But we've established that,
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: in fact, it was Omar Sakharia His brother, in 2013,
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: had become Australia's first suicide bomber when he launched an.
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: Attack in Syria.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: And his other brother was fighting for an al-Qaeda unit
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: in Syria as well. In 2016, Sakharia in Brisbane was
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: sentenced on those four foreign incursion charges. He was sentenced
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: to four and a half years jail, plus another six
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: months for another extortion charge. Where Mahmoud Fazal comes in
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: is in 2021 when he presents this background briefing report,
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: a 44-minute report.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: And he's told that story to the newest member of
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: the BB team, Mahmoud Fazal.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Mahmoud, welcome.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Hey, Alice. Thanks.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: And as I said, he gave him a pseudonym and
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: then he interviewed him.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: He wants to tell his story now because he thinks
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: it's important for people to hear what it's like to
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: be charged with a terror offence. Reporting on this story
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: has been a real eye-opener for me in a lot
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: of different ways.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: And to be honest, I wasn't looking at a story
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: about Fazal or his work. It came up in a
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: conversation with some police officers who raised the issue about
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Fazal and what he had said in this podcast. It's
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: five years later, they're still angry about some of the
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: imputations that Fazal had made about the Australian Federal Police.
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: During the podcast.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: What it was was that he had said that in 2016,
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: the time of the sentencing, he had been working for
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: another media outlet and that he had, in quotes, embedded
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: with some of Sakurai's friends and was staying at a residence.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: He didn't say where. He was going to go with
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: them to the sentencing of Sakurai, who, as I said,
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: he gave the pseudonym of Imran. What he said next
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: was both extraordinary and very distinctly put him in the
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: middle of the action of one of the big terrorism
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: cases of the moment.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: But on the day Imran's future would be decided at sunrise,
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: I woke to the sound of windows being smashed in.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Armed police officers from the Joint Counterterrorism Team were raiding
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: the house with their weapons drawn. I protested that I
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: was a journalist, but I was told to keep quiet.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: We'd later find out that members of Imran's family and
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: his close friends were also raided that morning. I missed
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Imran's sentencing, and so did his friends.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the very clear implication there is that this
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: is the actions of a police state, really. This is
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: the Australian Federal Police deliberately obstructing a journalist in his work,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and the work was just to go to a public
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: sentencing hearing, something that any journalist would expect to be
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: able to walk into. It's a quite shocking allegation to make.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: On Saturday, you published a story that said that the
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: AFP told you that they had told Mahmoud Faza when
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: he published this story that this was not right, that.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: In fact they had done no such raid. He published
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: a social.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Media post accusing the Australian and the AFP of lying
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: about him. What he posted alongside that were some screenshots
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: of what were clearly Queensland Police Service documents. That made
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: me wonder, was he confused about which police force had
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: raided the house?
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: But one of the things I knew in the background
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: was that when Mahmoud Fazal went to the federal police
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: and asked them about the raid that he'd been caught
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: up in, my understanding last week and over the weekend
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: was that he wouldn't furnish them with the exact address.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: He would only give them the area on the Gold Coast.
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: And he gave him, allegedly, a variety of reasons of
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: why he didn't know the address. It didn't sit right
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: with me. And then, again, when he put that document
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: on the internet, it seemed a bit clever. The letterhead
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: was a Queensland Police Service damages report, but the photograph
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: of it only had a sliver of the information. It
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: didn't have an address. It didn't have a date. It
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: had no warrant associated with it. It just had damage
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: to the front door and to the master bedroom. And
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: then it sort of had these perfunctory notes that would
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: be in any document provided by the police. So he
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: had not answered any questions to my approach before publication
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: on Friday night. After publication, he bounced into my phone
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  Speaker 4: and said I was wrong. So on Saturday, when I
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: saw that he was going to town on social media
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: about me, I then challenged him.
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: And said, well, okay, show us the documents.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Please send me the Queensland Police Service notice of damage,
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  Speaker 4: or even better, send me the search warrant. If a
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: police officer in any state and territory in this country
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: causes damage in a raid, they have to leave behind
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: a notice of damage.
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: But more importantly... When they.
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: Execute a warrant, they have to leave the warrant with
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: the occupants of that house. And that warrant would say
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: what they were there for and who they were. So
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: that would resolve the question. You know, the AFP had
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: said that it wasn't them. So now we've got some
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: sliver of evidence that there was a raid. So if
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: we get the search warrant, it would answer all the questions.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: And of course, he wouldn't give me the documents.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: So then you're left with the assumption that either he's
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: confused or he's deliberately being cute about whether it was
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: the Queensland Police Service or the Australian Federal Police. This
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: is not something that a journalist could actually be confused about,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: is it? It's pretty clear, the difference between the two.
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think they'd be different.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: I haven't been the subject of a raid by either
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: the bikey task force or counter-terrorism, but I don't think
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: you'd be confused. And as I said, if he's got
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: enough clarity of mind to take a photograph of a
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: Queensland police notice of damage, surely he would do the
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: same with a search warrant. But to his credit, he
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: did furnish me with the address of the house, which
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: was something that he hadn't done with the federal police.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: I then started looking into that house and then I
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: went to the Queensland Police Service and they were good
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: enough on a Saturday to go through their warrants and
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: then issue me a statement. What I've learned, what the
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: Queensland Police Service said, was that this was in fact
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: a raid that was conducted by Task Force Maxima, which
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: in that time in 2016 was a very well-known task
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: force that was tackling organised bikey crime. They had been
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: around for two or three years and that was their intent,
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: was crack down on the organised crime, the bikeys, particularly
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: down on the Gold Coast, and that this was a
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: warrant that related to suspicions of drugs and firearms at
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: the house. And in fact, when they went there, they
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: had arrested a man and charged him with six counts
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: of possession of drugs.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: So now Mahmoud Fazal is saying that he's prepared to
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: correct that report. So is he saying that he might
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: have been confused about which police force it was?
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: So Claire, he's now saying that he may be prepared
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: to correct the record. He's saying that these events occurred
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: 10 years ago, and I quote, my understanding of which
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: unit conducting the operation or what it related to was wrong,
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: I'm prepared to correct that. Of course, cleverly written, it
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: is in fact 10 years since the raid, but it
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: was only five years after when he first made this.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: Allegation in the podcast.
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  Speaker 4: There's no reason why a joint counterterrorism police officer would
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: be with those in the drug bus. Either way, in
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: his first broadcast of the background briefing, he said that
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: not only was he the subject of a raid by
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: the counterterrorism unit, but also other friends and family of
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: the sucker eyes. The Australian Federal Police have adamantly denied
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: that they conducted the raid that involved Fazal and also
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: on the friends and families of Sakurai. And I think
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: this is why, you know, quietly, privately, the Australian police
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: officers are really upset about this because of the suggestion
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: that not only were they preventing or seemingly trying to
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: prevent through this allegation, prevent a journalist from covering a case,
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: but also by extension with the other raids, intimidating the
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: family of someone who's pleaded guilty and facing sentencing on
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: that day.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Coming up, what's the ABC got to say?
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Music The stories that the ABC has already taken down
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: by Mahmoud Fazal, which include three Four Corners episodes and
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: two background briefing episodes, plus one segment of a Four
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Corners report in which he says he visits a drug, quote,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: trap house. But it wasn't any of that that resulted
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: in him being dismissed from the ABC. That was because
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: he participated in an external podcast for which there was
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: supposed to be payment that he had not sought permission
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: for from the ABC. You've gone to the ABC now
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: and asked what they're going to do about this particular report.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: What are they saying to you?
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: So far, nothing.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: James Madden, my colleague, went to the ABC and sent
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: them questions on Friday and again on Sunday, and we've
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: heard nothing back from them.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: The background briefing report does still appear to be online,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: and that's where we've obtained the audio of it from,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: which you've heard some of in this episode today. The
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: thing that Mahmoud Fazal was probably most famous for was
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: a report in 2025 in which he went to Turkey
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: and found a man called Sayyid Erhan Akar who claimed
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: to be involved in the Dural caravan plot.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: For the first time, Sayyid Akar tells his story. Were
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: you manipulating war enforcement? I was giving them explosives.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: So.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Mahmoud Fazal is and was capable of getting scoops for
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: the ABC. There's been a lot of criticism about the
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: way he conducted that interview with ACCA and didn't really
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: question him properly about his motivations or anything else. But,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: you know, he did bring value to the organisation, didn't he?
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: What do you think about that calculus as an experienced
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: reporter and a bureau chief and editor at Michael?
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Was it worth the risk of hiring him?
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: Well, I'm not sure.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: I can't answer that, Claire, because I just don't know
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: how deep this goes and how deep the issues and
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: questions about his reporting actually go. But there's no doubt
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: he was a good storyteller. You know, there's an authenticity
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: about him and there's a, you know, it's gritty realism.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: It's sort of reality television journalism. I mean, if you
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: look back before he joined the ABC, I looked at
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: some of his, I shouldn't laugh, I looked at some
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: of his reporting on Vice and here's one title for one.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Four dealers describe the worst chemicals they use to cut drugs.
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: Another one, I asked my prisoner mates to review their
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: favourite prison movies. I went to a weed expo and
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: ended up smoking.
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: A $ 20, 000 bong.
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: These are stories that some of us can't or aren't
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: allowed to deliver for our respective media outlets.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: You'd definitely click on them though, wouldn't you?
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah. This is the sort of new frontier in journalism
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: as well. I think that was one of the things
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: that enticed the ABC. The big question is, and I
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: think it's apparent by some of what we know already,
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: is that there wasn't enough scrutiny to what he was delivering.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Michael McKenna is a journalist with The Australian.