Aussie cricketer Usman Khawaja's brother arrested over fake terror plot to kill politicians

Arsalan Khawaja is suspected to have planted a fake terror list in the notebook of a co-worker.

Representational image

Arsalan Khawaja, brother of Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja, was arrested on Tuesday in connection with a fake terror plot which claimed to target the country's politicians.

Australian media reported that Arsalan was taken into custody on the charge that he had implicated a colleague in a fake terror plot discovered in August. Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen, a Sri Lankan in Sydney, was detained for nearly four weeks after a terror plot was discovered in his notebook while he was working as a PhD student in the University of New South Wales. At the time, he had claimed that he had been framed by a rival.

Subsequent investigations led cops to Arsalan, 39, and it is suspected that the entire incident could have been a result of rivalry between the two men over a woman.

Authorities in Sydney had treated the terror list with extreme caution because it had the name of Malcolm Turnbull - the then Aussie PM, as well. Nizamdeen was kept in detention for nearly four weeks before being released. He subsequently returned to Sri Lanka and is reportedly planning to sue on charges of wrongful detention.

Update: Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Arsalan has been released on 'strict' bail conditions.'