Australian police say 7 men detained in Sydney likely had ideological links to Bondi attackers
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Police walking past floral tributes left at the promenade of Bondi Beach in Sydney on Dec 18.
PHOTO: AFP
Pranav Baskar
SYDNEY – A special unit of Australia’s counter-terrorism police detained seven men in Sydney on Dec 18 on suspicion of planning a “violent act,” saying that they may have been on their way to Bondi Beach, where a mass shooting left 15 people dead
Authorities have made no connection between the men and the Bondi killings “at this point in time,” the police for the state of New South Wales said on Dec 18. But on the morning of Dec 19, Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson of the New South Wales police said the men were believed to share “extremist Islamic ideology” with the suspects in the Bondi killings.
“We have some indication that Bondi was one of the locations they might be visiting yesterday, but with no specific intent in mind or proven at this stage,” Mr Hudson said in an interview with ABC Radio Sydney.
The seven men were detained after the Tactical Operations Unit of the New South Wales police intercepted two cars in the south-west Sydney neighborhood of Liverpool. The men are now “assisting police with their inquiries,” police said.
In his interview, Mr Hudson said no weapons apart from a knife had been found in the cars.
Local news outlets reported that the cars had been on their way to Bondi and had license plates from Victoria, the state bordering New South Wales. Police did not confirm those details to The New York Times on Dec 19 or explain why authorities believed they may have been planning a violent act.
Video footage of the police operation published by The Sydney Morning Herald and Nine News showed heavily armed security forces restraining men with zip ties near a busy shopping centre before they were taken into custody.
Information about the identities of the men, or whether they had been charged with any crimes, was not immediately available.
Officials have classified the attack on Dec 14, the worst mass shooting in Australia in nearly three decades, as a terrorist act.
Authorities have said that the two men believed to have carried out the attacks – Naveed Akram, 24, and his father, Sajid Akram, 50 – appeared to be motivated by anti-semitism inspired by the Islamic State group. Police said officers shot both men; the father died, and the son is hospitalised and has been charged in the attacks.
On Dec 18, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced new measures against anti-semitism, including laws that would “crack down on those who spread hate, division and radicalisation”. NYTIMES
