Cricketer Usman Khawaja’s brother charged with faking attack plot to frame rival

SYDNEY: The brother of Australian cricket star Usman Khawaja was charged on Tuesday with creating what police described as fake plans for attacks against prominent people that led to the imprisonment of another man he saw as a rival for the affections of a woman.

Arsalan Tariq Khawaja was granted bail in Sydney’s Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday afternoon on charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and forgery. He was arrested in western Sydney earlier as part of a New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team investigation. Police allege 39-year-old Arsalan Khawaja created a fake document “containing plans that purported to facilitate terrorism attacks”. The document led them to arrest and imprison 25-year-old Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen in August. Nizamdeen was released in October after it was shown his handwriting did not match that in the document, which domestic media reported included threats against then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and others.