Two men appear in Aus court for funding, recruiting for Syrian al-Qaeda

Brisbane, Australia: The suspected brother of a suicide bomber killed in Syria and another alleged jihadist appeared in an Australian court on Thursday charged with funding and recruiting for al-Qaeda offshoot terrorists in the Middle East. Omar Succarieh, 31, and Agim Kruezi, 21, appeared briefly in a Brisbane city Magistrates Court for the first since they were arrested Wednesday in a series of police raids in Brisbane and neighboring Logan that culminated a yearlong counterterrorism investigation. Neither man entered a plea or applied for bail. They were remanded in custody to appear in the same court on October 17. [caption id=“attachment_1670277” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. AP[/caption] Both were charged with making preparations and raising funds for incursions into Syria and Iraq with intentions of engaging in hostile activity. Succarieh, a driver from Brisbane, is the older brother of 27-year-old Ahmed Succarieh, who is widely reported to have used the alias Abu Asma al-Australi, and died in a car bomb blast at a Syrian army checkpoint in September last year. The family says the younger brother is alive. Succarieh was charged with providing funds to al-Qaida offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front. Kruezi, an unemployed man from Logan, was also charged with recruiting people to join the Islamic State movement, another al-Qaida offshoot, to fight in Syria and Iraq. The maximum prison sentences that each man faces if convicted was not immediately clear. AP