Sydney man begins sentence for Syria trip
The parents of a Sydney man jailed for travelling to Syria in 2013 say they did everything in their power to stop him while authorities offered "no assistance".
Mehmet Biber, 25, was on Friday handed a sentence of at least two and a half years after he pleaded guilty to entering a foreign state intending hostile activity.
He denied ever fighting - saying he was "extremely bored" for most of the trip - but also conceded he would have tried to if given the chance.
Before Biber set off on the risky jaunt, his parents pleaded four times with authorities to stop him and his father eventually travelled to Turkey to persuade him to return.
Gaven Biber on Friday criticised authorities for not acting on his warnings.
"We did everything in our power to stop him but, unfortunately, the authorities gave us no assistance whatsoever," he said outside the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta.
Justice Adamson said Biber, whose wife was pregnant when he decided to go to Syria, had been immature and selfish but had a reasonable prospect of rehabilitation.
