Hamdi Alqudsi, the first person in Australia to be charged with recruiting and sending people overseas to fight with terrorist groups in Syria will face trial after a court upheld the constitutional validity of foreign incursion laws.
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Mr Alqudsi, of St Helen's Park in Sydney's south-west, is accused of instructing and supporting seven people to travel from Australia to Syria via Turkey to fight with Jabhat al-Nusra, along with other al-Qaeda affiliates.
On Thursday the NSW Supreme Court dismissed Mr Alqudsi's bid to have the foreign incursion laws declared constitutionally invalid. Justice Christine Adamson also dismissed his application to quash the indictment.
Mr Alqudsi, 41, has been committed to stand trial in the NSW Supreme Court. He was arrested by the NSW joint counter-terrorism taskforce in Sydney in December 2013. The trial was set down for six weeks to begin next month but is likely to be postponed during a mention on Friday.
Justice Adamson said the section of the Crimes (Foreign Incursions and Recruitment) Act that prohibits people supporting or promoting entry into another state with the intent to fight or train to fight is authorised on the basis that it is a law for the peace, welfare and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to external affairs.
Mr Alqudsi had taken his constitutional challenge to the High Court but in July the matter was remitted to the Supreme Court.
The offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years jail.
Last month Mr Alqudsi made headlines when his bail was varied to allow him to live at Minto mosque during the holy period of Ramadan.
