The radical Melbourne "sheikh" who converted Islamic State recruiter Neil Prakash to Islam has remained tight-lipped about his links to the terrorist, who was killed by a US air strike in Iraq last week .
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Harun Mehicevic converted and preached to Prakash at Al-Furqan in Springvale South, the centre which has been linked to several radical extremists, including others who have died fighting in the Middle East.
But he had little to say on Thursday about the air strike, which claimed the life of Prakash and as many as 10 other Islamic State members, or about his relationship with one of Australia's most prominent jihadis.
Prakash, 24, was a key target because of his links to terror plots in Australia and calls for lone-wolf attacks in the US.
It was revealed on Thursday that Prakash was killed in an air strike on Mosul, the Islamic State capital, last Friday.
It was less than four years ago that Mehicevic reportedly met Prakash, who grew up in Melbourne, and converted him to Islam on the same day.
In mid-2013, within a year of being converted, Prakash travelled to Syria to join Islamic State.
Mehicevic would not answer detailed questions about Prakash or his death.
It is unclear whether he remained in contact with Prakash - a prolific user of social media until last year, when his accounts went quiet amid increased US scrutiny - or how frequently Prakash had attended Al-Furqan.
Mehicevic spoke to Fairfax Media from his Springvale South home, only a few hundred metres from the shop which housed Al-Furqan.
"What does this have to do with me?" Mehicevic said.
"I have nothing to say about it."
Mehicevic closed Al-Furqan in April last year when it was again thrust in the spotlight after a series of anti-terror raids. The raids allegedly foiled an Anzac Day plot orchestrated by men linked to the centre.
Prakash was Mehicevic's most prominent devotee, given his status within Islamic State and the subsequent influence he wielded on the next generation of jihadis.
Mehicevic - who calls himself a sheikh, but has no formal qualification and has been denounced by prominent Islamic figures in Melbourne - continued to hold prayers for months after closing the centre, but it is unclear whether he continues to do so.
He has never been charged with a terrorism-related offence, and his former devotees claim that while he preaches a hardline interpretation of Islam, he does not openly extol violence.
Mehicevic first came to prominence when the Australian Federal Police raided his centre, house, and the houses of centre attendees in 2012.
Attempts to contact Prakash's family and former friends were unsuccessful.
It was also revealed on Thursday that another Australian, Shadi Jabar Khalil Mohammad - the sister of 15-year-old Farhad Jabar, who shot dead police accountant Curtis Cheng in Parramatta last year - was also killed in a US airstrike.
Ms Jabar was in Syria with her Sudanese husband, Abu Sa'ad al-Sudani, who was also killed. Both were regarded as active recruiters for the Islamic State group.
