Sports, Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faiszer Mustapha responded to Australian media on the controversy involving his nephew, Mohamed Nizamdeen, who is currently in custody in Australia over terror-related charges.

"We love him - when anyone has done something wrong they should deal with them - but as a family we believe he's innocent,"  Musthapha told Hack, an Australian media outlet. 

"As a family we believe he hasn't done anything wrong, we're very confident of that but until the judicial system makes a finding we'll have to wait and see.

"I don't want to pre-judge things... all that we can say is that we have love, affection, and praise for him," the Minister said. 

Australian law enforcement authorities yesterday announced that the New South Wales student accused of documenting plans in a notebook to assassinate two senior Australian politicians is the nephew of a Sri Lankan cabinet minister.

The ABC revealed Mohamed Nizamdeen, 25, is related to Sri Lankan MP Faiszer Musthapha, who is the country's Sports and Local Government Minister.

The PhD student,, is also the grandson of Jehan Kamer Cassim, the late former chairman of one of Sri Lanka's biggest banks — Bank of Ceylon.

Nizamdeen, who also worked as a UNSW business systems analyst, was arrested at the Kensington campus last Thursday.

His arrest came after a colleague found a notebook allegedly containing details of plans to kill former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and his deputy Julie Bishop.

The alleged list of his targets also included the former speaker Bronwyn Bishop, the Sydney Opera House, major train stations and police stations across the Harbour City.