Bulgaria sentences Aussie on terror

But John Zakhariev, a dual Australian-Bulgarian citizen who grew up in Sydney and went to Waverley College, complained after the sentence that it had been a "show trial" without any evidence proving his guilt.

His lawyer said he would probably appeal the verdict, saying the Bulgarian investigation into his client had been "one-sided". He has two weeks to decide whether to do so.

Zakhariev said he thought it would be a waste of time.

"What's the point of going to another show court and enduring another show trial," he told reporters in the courtroom.

Prosecutor Evgenia Stankova said Zakhariev had been training as a terrorist with the intention of returning to Syria - and had chosen Bulgaria because its shooting galleries were cheap to use.

In a copy of the indictment obtained by Fairfax Media, prosecutors said Zakhariev travelled to Syria from Sydney in 2013 and trained with the Free Syrian Army - a loose group of brigades some of whom were hardline Islamists and al-Qaeda-linked jihadists.

Zakhariev had left Syria after only a eight days in order to acquire better weapons skills, but decided shooting training in Australia was too expensive, so he travelled to Morocco and then Bulgaria, they said.

Between July and September 2016 he visited a shooting club in Sofia and expressed "strong interest" in shooting with a Kalashnikov, according to evidence from his instructor.

He then went to another shooting range where he was able to train with a Kalashnikov. There, at one point Zakhariev approached the target and shot his last two bullets at point blank range, the indictment said.

Another witness, Kristina Georgieva, who accompanied him and helped with translation, said he told her he "loves Bulgaria because he can pay and shoot".

Zakhariev was arrested on September 20.

According to the indictment, another witness who met the defendant at a local mosque said Zakhariev had said he "loved Daesh" (Islamic State) and said they should go to Syria to fight.

Police searched his computer and found files related to radical Islam, prosecutors said, and had regularly visited a website where the actions and progress of Islamic State were monitored. He had also watched videos featuring the al-Nusra and Islamic State groups, and instructional videos on the handling of a Kalashnikov.

Zakhariev, a dual Australian-Bulgarian citizen, denied this, saying the evidence against him amounted to "I was in the possession of some religious books and I went shooting a few times" - which was not proof of terrorism.

Mr Botev said his client came to Bulgaria to care for his ill father who died earlier this year. He said Zakhariev had been in Syria on "humanitarian grounds" and "there was no evidence that he ever touched a weapon" while he was there.

He also said that Bulgarian authorities had relied heavily on a file on his client passed to them by Australian security services.

In Sofia, a man who called himself Petar Petrov invited Zakhariev to go to a shooting gallery - something he otherwise wouldn't have done.

And Mr Botev said the woman, Ms Georgieva's claim that she had just by chance happened to strike up a conversation with his client and discovered their shared interest in shooting was "absolutely insane".

Zakhariev's supporters have claimed that he was entrapped into going to the shooting ranges.

Mr Botev said his client had expressed a wish to go to Syria after the end of the war, not while it was still going.

The books found in Zakhariev's flat were not forbidden and were widely available, Mr Botev said, and before his arrest his client had decided to leave the Muslim faith.

He said Zakhariev was a young person, isolated from society and family, who had had a "theological but not radical" enthusiasm for Islam.

And he asked the court, if they found Zakhariev guilty, to take into account his young age, his father's recent death, the illness of his mother - who has cancer - and his own health problems.

Mr Botev said his client was lonely in prison, though he had adopted a small cat.

Zakhariev addressed the court at the end of the trial and said he hadn't seen a single piece of evidence of a crime committed by him - and no evidence that he wanted to go back to Syria.

After the verdict he repeatedly insisted that he was "absolutely not a terrorist", and said the prison in Sofia was not designed to rehabilitate people but to break them down.

The sentence was half the maximum eight years that could have been applied. Zakhariev was also ordered to pay 10,222.96 Bulgarian Levs (about $7900) in court costs.

Zakhariev's mother Anne Ngo was present at court but did not comment afterwards on the verdict or sentence.

- with Teodor Spasov