Terror suspects stopped near Sydney nuclear reactor

SYDNEY - Police stopped three Sydney terrorist suspects near the city's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in December 2004, a court has been told.

The police fact sheet tendered in relation to eight Sydney terrorist suspects who faced Sydney's Central Local Court last Friday was released to the media this morning.

The document states that Mazen Touma, Mohammed (Mohammed) Elomar and Abdul Rakib Hasan were stopped in their car by NSW police near the nuclear facility at Lucas Heights, in Sydney's south, in December 2004.

The men also had a trail bike and claimed they were there to ride it, the document said.

But according to the fact sheet, when interviewed separately, all three gave different versions of the day's events to police.

"Police inquiries revealed the access lock (lock) for a gate to a reservoir of the reactor had recently been cut," the fact sheet said.

Touma, Elomar and Hasan, along with five other Sydney men, have been charged with conspiring to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist act.

They will reappear in Central Local Court on December 5.

- AAP