- Attack described as inspired by “Daesh ideology”.
- Review to examine powers, structures and information sharing.
- ASIO investigated the son in 2019, no threats found.
SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday he had ordered an investigation into police and intelligence services after two gunmen shot dead 15 people at a Jewish party on Bondi Beach.
A father and son are accused of firing bullets at the family’s Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s most famous beach on December 14, allegedly inspired by “ISIS ideology”.
Albanese said his government would review whether police and spy services had the powers, structures and sharing arrangements “to keep Australians safe”.
“THE [Daesh]“Last Sunday’s war-inspired atrocities reinforce the rapidly evolving security environment in our country,” he said.
“Our security agencies must be best placed to respond.”
Suspected shooter Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the Bondi attack. An Indian national, he entered Australia on a visa in 1998.
His son Naveed, 24, an Australian-born citizen, remains hospitalized under police custody and faces multiple charges, including terrorism and 15 murders.
“Shocking event”
The son was investigated by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization in 2019 for possible radicalization, but was deemed at the time not to pose a threat, according to Australian authorities.
His father was also questioned by the intelligence services as part of this examination, but he managed to obtain a firearms license allowing him to own six firearms.
Weeks before the Bondi Beach attack, the two men returned to Sydney after a four-week trip to the southern Philippines which is now being investigated by detectives there and in Australia.
Albanese said there were “real problems” with Australian intelligence in light of the attack.
“We need to look at exactly how these systems work. We need to look back at what happened in 2019 when this person was examined, what assessment was made,” he said on national television. ABC.
Asked in another interview about the suspected gunmen’s stay at a hotel on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, Albanese said their radicalization was being investigated.
“But it’s also true that they were not considered persons of interest, and that’s why this is such a shocking event,” he said.
“Very, very unusual”
There is a long history of insurgencies in the Mindanao region, but authorities say there is no evidence to suggest the Philippines is being used to train extremists.
The staff of GV Hotel in Davao City said AFP that the two men remained locked in their small room for most of their 28-day stay.
They usually left their rooms for only two or three hours, with the longest excursion lasting eight hours, the Philippine National Security Service said.
Regional police, who scoured CCTV footage to trace the two men’s steps and find out who they met, said the father had gone to a weapons store.
Clarke Jones, a criminologist at the Australian National University, said it was “very, very unusual” to have a father and son as the alleged perpetrators.
Once in the Philippines, the two men could easily have gone to Mindanao without raising a flag, he said. AFP.
Jones, who has worked with violent offenders in the Philippines, said the radicalization of the suspected gunmen apparently went “unnoticed” for years after the Australian intelligence investigation.
“I think we would really need to look at what happened and whether this child, when he was first detected, should have been put into some sort of support program to prevent this potential thing from happening,” he said.
