A man accused of planning to blow up an electricity grid in Australia has been found guilty of terrorist offenses. Faheem Khalid Lodhi, a Pakistan-born architect, has been convicted of gathering maps, chemicals and instructions for making homemade bombs and poison.
Faheem Khalid Lodhi was accused of planning the attack on the electricity grid in Sydney in October 2003.
Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says he is happy with the jury's decision.
"Obviously the evidence being there and the jury having found him guilty. I welcome that outcome," he said.
The prosecution said the 36-year-old architect had written a so-called "terror manual" in his native Urdu. It had instructions for making explosives and poisons obtained from the Internet.
The court was also shown maps of Australia's national electricity grid that Lodhi had bought and heard that the police had seized DVDs with information on terrorist training.
Investigators also alleged that Lodhi had trained with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group outlawed by Canberra.
Lodhi, an Australian citizen, had pleaded not guilty, saying his interest in chemicals was part of a business venture. He said the maps of Australia's energy infrastructure were to be included in a marketing plan to send generators to Pakistan.
The jury took almost five days to find Lodhi guilty of three of the four charges he faced.
Lodhi was prosecuted under Australia's federal anti-terrorism laws passed since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
He will be sentenced later this month and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.