The suspect in the mass shooting at Bondi Beach faces 59 charges, including 15 murders
Johannesburg – The man suspected of opening fire at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s famous Bondi beach has been charged with 59 charges, including murder and terrorism, police said on Wednesday.
Suspects of father and son opened fire at the celebration on Sydney’s famous Bondi beach on Sunday, killing 15 in an incident that shocked the nation and fueled fears of an increase in anti-Semitism and violence.
Funerals for the Jewish victims of the attack began on Wednesday, amid anger over whether the gunmen – one of whom was briefly investigated for links to extremists – were allowed access to high-powered rifles.
Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene, while his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram emerged from a coma on Tuesday afternoon after being shot by police.
Police in New South Wales said on Wednesday a man was charged with 59 offences, including 15 murder, 40 wounding and attempted murder, and attempted murder and others.
As memorials continue for the 15 people who died in the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, stories of courage are being shared about the few victims who spoke out against their attackers. Meanwhile, questions are being raised about the trip to the Philippines taken by the suspected shooters.
“The police will charge the man who committed the practices that caused death, serious injury and endangering life in order to advance religious work and create fear in the community,” said the statement.
“Early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by ISIS, an Australian-listed terrorist organization.”
The court on Wednesday revealed that Naveed Akram, who is still in hospital in Sydney, is being guarded by the police, as the man has accused.
Akram’s lawyer did not defend himself and did not ask for his client to be released on bail when he appeared in court via video from his hospital bed, the court statement said.
He traveled to the Philippines, police said
He will appear via video link before a local court on Monday morning.
The father and son had traveled to the southern Philippines, a region long under attack by Islamist militants, in the weeks before the shooting that Australian police said appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State.
The leader of the Australian state of New South Wales said on Wednesday that he will dissolve parliament next week to pass a series of changes to gun laws and protests, days after the country’s worst mass shooting in three decades.
Chris Minns, the Premier of New South Wales where the attack took place, told a press conference that parliament would return on December 22 to hear “urgent” changes, including raising the number of guns allowed per person and making certain types of guns harder to access.
The funerals of the victims begin
The funeral of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad Bondi Synagogue and father of five, was held on Wednesday.
He was known for his work in the Sydney Jewish community through Chabad, a global organization that promotes Jewish identity and connection. Schlanger will visit prisons and meet with Jewish people living in public housing in Sydney, Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin said on Monday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing criticism that his centre-left government did not do enough to prevent the spread of antisemitism in Australia during the two-year Israel-Gaza war.
“We are going to work with the Jewish community, we want to end and eliminate hatred in our community,” Albanese told reporters.
The government and intelligence services are also under pressure to explain why Sajid Akram was allowed to legally obtain the high-powered rifles and firearms used in the attack. The government has promised radical changes to gun laws.
Naveed Akram, meanwhile, was briefly investigated by Australia’s domestic intelligence agency in 2019 for alleged links to the Islamic State, but there was no evidence at the time that he posed a threat, Albanese said.
Albanese said Ahmed al-Ahmed, 43, the man who grabbed one of the gunmen to pull out his gun and suffered gunshot wounds, had to undergo surgery on Wednesday.
Al-Ahmed’s uncle, Mohammed al-Ahmed in Syria, said his nephew left his hometown in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province about 20 years ago to seek work in Australia.
“We read on social media. I called his father and he told me it was Ahmed. Ahmed is a hero, we are proud of him. Syria in general is proud of him,” said my uncle to Reuters.
The family of police officer Jack Hibbert, 22, who was shot twice on Sunday and had only been in the force for four months, said in a statement on Wednesday that he had lost the sight in one eye and was facing a “long and challenging recovery” ahead.
New South Wales Premier Minns said 23 people were still in several Sydney hospitals.
Other victims of the shooting included a Holocaust survivor, a husband and wife who approached the gunmen before they opened fire, and a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, according to interviews, officials and media reports.
Matilda’s father told Bondi’s vigil on Tuesday night that he did not want his daughter’s legacy to be forgotten.
“We came here from Ukraine … and I thought the name Matilda was the most Australian name ever. So remember the name, remember her,” said local media.
In Bondi on Wednesday, swimmers gathered at Sydney’s most popular beach for a minute’s silence. The New Year’s Eve party that was supposed to be held at the beach was canceled by the organizers.
“This week has obviously been very intense, and this morning, I feel a sense of the community coming together, a sense of everyone sitting together,” Archie Kalaf, a 24-year-old Bondi man, told Reuters. “Everyone is sad, everyone understands it and processes it in their own way.”
