Ahmad Saiyer Naizmand, 22, who has previously been convicted of using his brother's passport to leave Australia after his own passport was cancelled, watched a series of videos promoting terrorist attacks on his mobile phone.

Naizmand, a labourer from western Sydney, was at the time subject to a strict terrorism control order which, among other conditions, banned him from accessing propaganda or promotional material from terror group Islamic State.

A Federal Circuit Court judge imposed the order in 2015 finding that Naizmand was part of a close-knit group in Sydney that supported IS and had a desire to become martyrs. Naizmand's name had also been mentioned in an intercepted telephone call relating to the plotting of a terrorist attack in Australia.

Naizmand is the brother-in-law of suspected terrorist Omarjan Azari, who allegedly planned to pick an "unbeliever" in Sydney and kill them in front of an IS flag.

He breached the order five times between January and February last year when he watched three separate videos on his mobile phone. He pleaded guilty and is only the second person to be sentenced for breaching a control order.

The videos advocated terrorist attacks and included images of the IS flag, the wounded bodies of "martyrs" and calls for wannabe jihadists to "go wear an explosive, rise up, blow up and take pleasure in the destruction and the outcome".

The clips also made references to the "extermination of the enemies of darkness" and to members of the US military as worshippers of satan.

When police searched Naizmand's home, they found a handwritten note including the line: "We are the regular soldiers of Allah ... let's make jihad and battle and fight."

Delivering his sentence in the Downing Centre District Court on Thursday, Judge Andrew Scotting​ said Naizmand had "posed a threat to the safety of the community that the control order was intended to ameliorate."

"I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt the offender accessed the videos because he believed in the extremist ideology underlying them," Judge Scotting said.

The court heard Naizmand was born in Kabul in Afghanistan and his family fled to Pakistan as refugees. His father was murdered in his family home when Naizmand was 7.

In Australia, Naizmand left school during the course of year 12, lived with his wife and family and had been employed as a gyprocker and courier.

Naizmand told a psychiatrist he had not been raised as religious but had been introduced to the Islamic faith by his brother in his teenage years.

At the time he watched the videos Naizmand was on a good behaviour bond after being convicted for using his brother's passport to travel from Australia to Malaysia and on to the United Arab Emirates in 2014.

Since his arrest in February 2016, Naizmand has been in maximum security in Goulburn prison. The court heard he is locked in a cell without windows from 2.30pm to 8.30am, is only permitted to associate with one prisoner and is handcuffed and shackled when outside the cell.

Judge Scotting said Naizmand had not explained his actions or expressed contrition and there was "little information available" about his prospects of rehabilitation.

But he acknowledged that Naizmand was a young man and took into account the security classification as a mitigating factor in his sentencing.

The court heard only one other person had been sentenced for breaching a control order after making a call on a public telephone and mobile which had not been approved for the use. The conversations were innocuous and the offender was given a maximum sentence of two years with a non-parole period of 18 months.

Judge Scotting sentenced Naizmand to a non-parole period of three years. Backdated to include the time he has already spent in custody, he will be eligible for release in February 2019.

As Naizmand was led back to the cells, he raised his index finger, a gesture which has been adopted by IS. He also waved and smiled at two supporters who were in the court room.