A man accused of opening fire at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach has been charged with 59 offences, including murder and terrorism.
The alleged perpetrators, a father and son, opened fire during the celebration on Sunday, killing 15 people in an attack that shocked Australia and heightened concerns about rising anti-Semitism and violent extremism, reports RTE.
Funerals for the Jewish victims of the shooting have now begun, amid anger over how the gunmen – one of whom had previously been investigated over extremist links – were able to access high-powered firearms.
Sajid Akram, aged 50, was shot dead by police at the scene, while his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram regained consciousness yesterday afternoon in a Sydney hospital after also being shot by police, reports RTE.
New South Wales Police said today that a man has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of wounding with intent to murder, as well as a terrorism offence and other charges.
“Police will allege in court the man engaged in conduct that caused death, serious injury and endangered life to advance a religious cause and cause fear in the community,” the statement said, reports RTE.
“Early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by ISIS, a listed terrorist organisation in Australia,” reports RTE.
Court documents identified Naveed Akram as the individual charged.
He is due to appear via video link before a local court on Monday morning, reports RTE.
The father and son had travelled to the southern Philippines, an area long affected by Islamist militancy, weeks before the shooting, which Australian police said appeared to be inspired by the so-called Islamic State.
However, authorities in the Philippines said there was no evidence the country was being used for terrorist training, reports RTE.
“[President Ferdinand Marcos] strongly rejects the sweeping statement and the misleading characterisation of the Philippines as the ISIS training hotspot,” presidential spokeswoman Claire Castro said, reports RTE.
“There is no validated report or confirmation that individuals involved in the Bondi Beach incident received any form of training in the Philippines,” reports RTE.
The leader of Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, said he would recall parliament next week to pass wide-ranging reforms to gun and protest laws, days after the country’s deadliest mass shooting in three decades.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said the state parliament would reconvene on 22 December to consider “urgent” reforms, including limits on the number of firearms a person can own and tighter controls on certain types of shotguns, reports RTE.
The state government will also examine reforms to make it more difficult to organise large street protests following terror incidents, in an effort to prevent further tensions.
“We’ve got a monumental task in front of us. It’s huge,” he said, reports RTE.
“It’s a huge responsibility to pull the community together. I think we need a summer of calm and togetherness, not division,” reports RTE.
Funerals have taken place for two rabbis killed in the shooting, Eli Schlanger and Yaakov Levitan.
Other victims included a Holocaust survivor, a husband and wife who initially approached the gunmen before they began firing, and a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, according to interviews, officials and media reports, reports RTE.
Matilda’s father told a vigil held in Bondi last night that he did not want his daughter’s legacy to be forgotten.
“We came here from Ukraine … and I thought that Matilda is the most Australian name that can ever exist. So just remember the name, remember her,” local media quoted him as saying, reports RTE.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing criticism that his centre-left government failed to do enough to prevent the spread of anti-Semitism during the two-year Israel-Gaza war.
“We will work with the Jewish community, we want to stamp out and eradicate anti-Semitism from our society,” Mr Albanese told reporters, reports RTE.
The government and intelligence agencies are also under pressure to explain how Sajid Akram was legally able to obtain the high-powered rifles and shotguns used in the attack.
The government has already pledged sweeping reforms to gun legislation, reports RTE.
Naveed Akram had previously been investigated briefly by Australia’s domestic intelligence agency in 2019 over alleged links to Islamic State, but there was no evidence at the time that he posed a threat, Mr Albanese said, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
