New order for Victorian terror tweeter

A Melbourne man who tweeted death threats to police has been handed a new community corrections order after breaching his last one.

Khodr Taha leaves the Melbourne Magistrates Court

A man who tweeted death threats to police has been handed a new community corrections order. (AAP)

A Melbourne man who tweeted death threats to police and urged Islamic State to behead captives has been handed a new community corrections order after breaching his last one.

Khodr Moustafa Taha, 36, was handed a two-year order in May and banned from using social media after he pleaded guilty to 10 charges.

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday he admitted breaching the order by accessing social media, failing to report for community work and failing to comply with drug testing.

Taha said he made a mistake when he visited social networking site Tumblr twice, and a blog and Instagram once while on the original order.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Jelena Popovic said Taha had made too many mistakes.

She handed him a new order, which will run for two years and doesn't take into account the months already spent on the previous one.

"That's essentially penalty for what you did," Ms Popovic told Taha.

She fined him $300, but noted he had largely complied with the original order.

Ms Popovic gave Taha the first order following his Twitter rant that condoned terrorist behaviour and was racist, misogynistic and threatening.

"An officer will die," he tweeted to Victoria Police.

Another urged Islamic State to behead captives.

"As soon as you get them, execute them, film it, send it to the parents of the victim," the tweet read.

Ms Popovic said earlier this year there was a connection between his offending and a drug-induced psychosis, and a lengthy order would allow for better supervision.

Taha had never engaged in any acts of terrorism or behaviour that indicated he intended to, she said.

In the court on Thursday, Sergeant Mark Higginbotham said police had investigated accounts linked to Taha's original offending, and none of them had been accessed.

Taha failed to show up for community work three times because public transport did not run early enough for him to get there by 8.30am on a Sunday.

Defence lawyer Kimani Boden said the drug testing breach happened because Taha had not been able to produce a urine sample.

He had been asked to provide the sample in front of female staff, causing him "embarrassment and difficulty".

TAHA'S CCO:

* Judicial monitoring, starting from February when he is due back in court

* He can't operate any social media account

* He can't post or comment on any site, and must produce his electronic devices for auditing

* Taha can have an email account

* 82 hours of unpaid work

* He has already completed 68 hours of the original 150

* Supervision and programs, including drug rehabilitation.


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Source: AAP


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New order for Victorian terror tweeter | SBS News