Australian police have recovered thousands of rounds of ammunition, Hamas and Hezbollah flags and a "shopping list" of materials to make explosives at the home of a man who allegedly made antisemitic social media posts.
Martin Thomas Glynn, 39, from a suburb of Perth in Western Australia, appeared for his court hearing Wednesday after being charged with three offenses, including carrying a prohibited weapon.
On Dec. 14, just hours after two gunmen killed 15 people at the famous Bondi Beach during a Hanukkah celebration, Glynn made social media posts pledging his support for the shooters, police alleged in a statement of facts before a court in Perth on Wednesday.
“I just want to say that I, Martin Glynn, 100 per cent support the New South Wales shooters,” he said in one of his posts, police told the court.
His arrest Tuesday came the same day the government in New South Wales, the country's most populous state, proposed a series of reforms that tighten gun ownership laws and ban protests on streets for up to three months. Glynn's arrest and the swift changes to gun laws are part of a broader effort by authorities to restore a sense of security in Australia, which has been rocked by the worst mass shooting in three decades.
"There is no place in Australia for antisemitism, hate and violent ideologies," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement Wednesday on Instagram.
Glynn's arrest came as police executed a search warrant at his suburban home, where investigators found flags of Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, six lawfully acquired rifles and 4,000 rounds of ammunition in his house, police said.
Notes referencing Hitler and the Holocaust were found as well, investigators told the court, where the accused appeared, representing himself.
Police said they also found images depicting how to produce smoke bombs and improvised initiators made out of shaved aluminum — which are used to manufacture explosives.
Moreover, Glynn had access to open source information on making explosives and had an entire "shopping list" consistent with making bombs, though none of the items were present at his home, the court was told.
In one of his Instagram posts, Glynn wrote that he had “no sympathy for any casualties” citing Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza, police alleged.
For his defense, Glynn told the court that he had "50 different types" of flags which were "not on display, they were in a box."
Glynn said he became “very opinionated” as Israel waged its war in Gaza. “I was hoping to raise the hypocrisy,” he said.
More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, killed nearly 1,200 people and saw 251 people taken hostage.
Glynn said he had no intention to harm anybody and was just a "doomsday prepper," saying the fire starters were just matches wrapped up that he uses for a fire pit.
"I am not a violent person," he told the court.
"There is nothing illegal or necessarily improper with supporting the Palestinian cause," the magistrate said, "What is not proper is posting online comments supporting a massacre of innocent civilians."
Glynn was denied bail and will next appear in court Feb. 3.
