An Australian bookshop owner was sentenced to 4.5 years in jail on Wednesday for sending money overseas to his brother who is fighting against the Syrian government.

Omar Succarieh, 33, has been in custody since he was arrested in counter-terrorism raids in Australia in September 2014.

Last month he pleaded guilty to so-called foreign incursion charges for helping Australian fighters in Syria in 2014, after prosecutors dropped more serious terror-related offences against him.

His brother, Ahmed, blew himself up in a suicide attack on September 11, 2013, in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor. He had left Australia to fight in Syria five months prior.

Succarieh's other brother, Abraham, is still in Syria fighting alongside an Islamic extremist group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-linked group previously known as the al-Nusra Front.

Brisbane Supreme Court gave Succarieh a non-parole period of three years for the offences, which means he will be eligible for release in late 2017.

‘The Muslim community is harmed by your offences because of the fear of them that it might engender in people thinking that you represent the Muslim community, which you most certainly don't,’ Justice Roslyn Atkinson said.

 In a statement to the court, Succarieh said as a young Muslim man he felt targeted by Australian authorities.

The court heard recordings of Succarieh arranging for the transfer of 43,000 US dollars to Syria in 2014.

 The Brisbane resident allegedly gave 7,700 dollars to another Australian to travel overseas to fight.

Australia is currently investigating approximately 200 people for providing support to individuals and groups in the conflict, or seeking to travel there themselves.

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