Australian authorities say a 65-year-old man in Melbourne pledged allegiance to Islamic State and distributed thousands of pieces of extremist propaganda online over several years.
He is the seventh man arrested in Victoria since May in cases involving the alleged possession or distribution of Islamic State material online.
The Australian Federal Police have not connected the latest arrest to the other six cases and declined to say whether investigators believe there is any relationship between them.
The Australian citizen, whose identity has not been made public, was scheduled to appear before a Melbourne court on Wednesday.
He faces charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and transmitting violent extremist material through an encrypted messaging platform that police have not identified.
If convicted, he could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Police allege that the man circulated 10,000 files containing extremist material between 2015 and 2020. The files reportedly included Islamic State propaganda as well as content depicting executions and torture.
According to a statement released Wednesday, he also shared advice on evading law enforcement and guides outlining how to plan and carry out mass-casualty attacks.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Paula Hudson told reporters in Canberra that the volume of material and the way it was distributed allegedly made the man “a principal distributor of ISIS propaganda within the group.”
“The material glorified acts of violence and terrorism, spreading hateful ideology that is designed to radicalize others,” Hudson said.
Investigators first became aware of the man during a 2020 border inspection, when officials searched his luggage as he prepared to leave Australia for a six-month visit to Egypt.
Hudson said he was not known to have traveled overseas since that trip and had not been linked to any attack or terrorist plot.
Earlier in September, authorities arrested a 30-year-old Melbourne man who was allegedly carrying violent extremist content while attempting to travel from Australia to the Middle East.
Federal police allege that the younger man belonged to an online group chat with five other Victorian men arrested in May. All six face charges connected to possessing extremist material, including Islamic State propaganda.
Islamic State has been significantly weakened and dispersed since a U.S.-led military campaign drove the group from the territory it controlled in Iraq and Syria in 2019. However, its cells remain active, and its ideology has continued to inspire attacks by individuals in Australia and other Western countries.
Australian authorities allege that a mass shooting at a Hanukkah event in 2025, in which two men are accused of killing 15 Jewish people, was motivated by the suspects’ affiliations with Islamic State.
Australia’s national security agencies estimate that about 200 Australians traveled to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State between 2012 and 2019.
The agencies say dozens of others supported the group from abroad or became involved in planning or carrying out terrorist attacks in Australia.
