The family of Kamer Nizamdeen, insists that the Sri Lankan youth who was arrested by the Australian counter terrorism force for owning a notebook with terror plots, is innocent and that he has been set up by someone jealous of his outstanding achievements.
One week after his arrest on August 30 and subsequent detention, the family had been given access to communicate with the 25-year-old who is a PhD student at the University of New South Wales at the time of his sudden arrest.
An aunt of the arrested boy told Sunday Observer on Friday (August 7), the only evidence held against her nephew is a note book that he had lost some months ago. This note book had been recovered by a co- worker from a workstation in which Kamer was previously employe.
Kamer had denied that the handwriting in the book, detailing terror attacks on certain high profile figures and places, including former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull and former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop as well as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, are his.
“He has everything to lose and nothing to gain from such radical affiliations,” the aunt said insisting that she was sure that her nephew has been framed by someone for reasons not known.
“We are a family of moderate Muslims and holds no radical views of the sort that my nephew is being charged with,” she said with a breaking voice.
Kamer, hailing from a professional family with most of his relatives being lawyers including his maternal grandfather, is related to the current Sports and Provincial Councils Minister Faiszer Mustapha.
The Minister speaking over the phone said he had faith in the Australian judicial system that justice will prevail for Kamer. The Minister was overseas at the time.
The Sri Lankan student was arrested by the Counter Terrorism officers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Kensington where he worked part time as a Business Analyst. According to Sydney Morning Herald, Kamer was chosen the ‘UNSW Hero of the Week’ in 2017. His thoughts that he considered happiness to be success above money and a top job won him the title.
“I was told that he had refused any legal representation at the time of his arrest, since he was under the impression that he could give them a statement and leave. He had nothing to hide,” the aunt said.
A role model to his peers, Kamer helped the New South Wales Police to develop a software to help international students to adapt and to stop identity theft. He had also mentored other students at the university.
The family is appalled by some of the news reports that had portrayed him as an IS affiliate, falsely describing that he had previously travelled to Tunisia and troubled middle eastern countries.
In a post on Facebook his brother wrote “When the media tells you that he travelled to Sri Lanka and ‘other areas’, please understand that other areas are not Syria or any war-torn region in the Middle East, it is simply the United States of America where he travelled to visit family.”
His aunt told the Sunday Observer that the visit to US was in last November and that he went to see his other aunt and cousins. Kamer later wrote of this visit that it was a dream come-true because he always wanted to visit the USA.
Kamer last visited his family in Sri Lanka on an extended holiday in August.
He has been in Australia since 2015 for higher studies and according to police he has no criminal record. Among the seized goods from his workstation at the University and at home in Zetland were his laptop, mobile phone and the X-box (video game console).
The Sri Lankan post graduate student was refused bail at the Waverly Local Court on August 31 when he was produced by the police the day after his arrest. The police said they suspect that Kamer was acting on his own. Despite their claims in a media interaction that Kamer ‘would affiliate with the Islamic State terrorists,’ the police have not charged him with ‘being a member of a terrorist group’.
According to police his note book contained details of potential terror attacks on certain places and individuals. The book is being analysed by psychologists and investigators. The police said upon receiving information of the notebook from a university employee they acted swiftly to arrest Kamer, the Australian media reported.
Following terror attacks in Europe, and in its own soil, the country remains on high alert for such crimes related to IS.
His family in Sri Lanka is actively working to prove his innocence. “They have absolutely nothing to link him to terrorism,” his aunt lamented adding that he was a normal God-fearing boy. A petition for the release of the Sri Lankan student has been started by the Change.org.
Kamer had many friends across ethinicities back in Sri Lanka, Lihan Mendis of S.Thomas’ Prep. School, said. He remembered Kamar as a big brother who helped him to get adapted to the school. “He is completely, completely a loving person and an open person. It is simply ridiculous to think that he could be affiliated to IS,” he said.
Former Principal of Asian International School Goolbai Gunasekara wrote to the Daily Mirror that, “His unfailing courtesy to teachers and to his classmates was noticed from the start. Teachers who taught him were always full of praise for his work ethic and his general thorough approach to studies,” adding that it was impossible to accept this young boy was ‘radicalised’.