Khalid told one conspirator, a 17-year-old who can only be called IM, that he should not travel to Syria and should instead perpetrate a terrorist attack in Australia. "In offending as he did, Khalid demonstrated that he was a devout terrorist," Justice Bellew said. "He was corrupted by a dangerous, violent and perverted ideology to which he unequivocally subscribed, which he wore as a badge of honour, but which has no place in any civilised society." The court heard Khalid appeared on the SBS program Insight several months before the plot, wearing an ISIS flag on his shirt and referring to himself as "Abu Bakr". On December 6, IM sent Khalid photos of himself posing with four of his uncle's guns. In a photo session that lasted for several hours, he variously stood in a "combat pose" and made an ISIS salute, his index finger raised into the air. The phone he used to take the photos would later be seized, with police finding other images on it of a beheading and the ISIS flag.

Following the Lindt cafe siege on December 16, the other conspirator Jibryl Alamouie, 24, said "the earlier we do things, the better" and wrote in a document, "the time is NOW!!!" When police raided his home two days later, they found three guns and ammunition, which he had talked about with Khalid using code words such as "banana" and "motorbike". Two other men - Mohamed Al Maouie​, 21,​ and Farhad Said, 25 - wrote documents that named potential locations to carry out the attack. Said, a "committed and violent jihadist" originally from Tanzania, named Lithgow jail and the federal police building as targets and made references to doing "something major" and "something massive". Al Maouie wrote about "gorilla [sic] warfare" and urged, "go to the woods and attack the dogs there", referring to police officers.

Said and Al Maouie pleaded guilty to intentionally making a document connected with preparation of a terrorist act. In sentencing all five offenders at Parramatta on Friday, Justice Bellew described them as "adherents to the ideology of violent jihad". One woman in the court began to sob as Khalid was jailed for a maximum of 22 years and six months, with a non-parole period of 16 years and nine months. Other family members cried as Alamouie was jailed for a maximum of 18 years and 10 months, to serve at least 14 years and two months. IM was sentenced to 13 years and six months, with a minimum of 10 years and one month, while Said was jailed for nine years and six months, to be eligible for parole in June 2023.

Al Maouie was imprisoned for nine years, with a non-parole period of six years and nine months. IM will be imprisoned in a juvenile facility until he turns 21, when he will be transferred to an adult jail. As the offenders were taken from the room, one sobbing woman shouted to Khalid, "Sulayman I love you." She pointed to the ceiling as she said, "You're going to Jannah all right, you're going to heaven." Khalid returned the gesture. Other family members called out "stay strong" and "I love you."

Once all were led away, the woman slumped forward on the court seat and sobbed with her head in her hands.