ISIS (archive)
ISIS (archive)Reuters

A supporter of the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group who helped a teenager kill a police accountant in Sydney was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Friday, The Associated Press reports.

Milad Atai had pleaded guilty to assisting and encouraging Iranian-born Farhad Jabar, 15, to shoot Curtis Cheng as he walked from the police building on October 2, 2015.

Atai also pleaded guilty to helping Jabar's older sister Shadi Jabar Khalil Mohammed fly to Syria a day earlier. Jabar was shot dead by police, and a year later the sister died with her Sudanese husband in an airstrike in Syria.

A judge with the New South Wales state Supreme Court ordered Atai, 22, to serve a minimum 28 ½ years behind bars before he becomes eligible for parole. The judge said Atai had supported extreme jihad for several months before the shooting and appeared to still hold radical views, according to AP.

As Atai was led away from court, he raised an index finger in the direction of the judge in an Islamic State salute.

Australia is among the many countries which have been dealing with radicalization in recent years.

Australia raised the terror threat alert level to high in September of 2014. That month, it arrested 15 terror suspects who were planning to behead a random member of the public in a campaign of terror.

Last year, Australian authorities announced they foiled a terrorist attack that was planned for New Year’s Eve.

An ISIS sympathizer had planned to buy a gun and kill as many revellers as possible on New Year's Eve in Melbourne's popular Federation Square. He was detained before he could carry out his plot.

A year earlier, police prevented an attack in Melbourne which was planned for Christmas Day, arresting several men who planned to use explosives, knives and guns to target people.

Earlier this month, a Somali-born Australian went on a deadly knife rampage in the country's second-largest city of Melbourne, killing one person and injuring two others before he was shot and killed by police.

ISIS later claimed via its propaganda arm that the attacker was an "Islamic State fighter and carried out the operation", but provided no evidence to back its claim. The Australian government has determined that the stabber was inspired by ISIS but not linked to the group.

This week, according to AP, three Australian men of Turkish descent were charged with planning an ISIS group-inspired mass-casualty attack in Melbourne, which would likely have happened over the Christmas period. Police said the plot had been thwarted with the arrests.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)