- Attack described as inspired by “Daesh ideology”.
- Review to examine powers, structures and information sharing.
- ASIO investigated the son in 2019 and found no threat.
SYDNEY: Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday he had ordered a review of police and intelligence services after two gunmen shot dead 15 people at a Jewish festival in Bondi Beach.
A father and son are accused of shooting bullets at the family's Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's most famous beach on December 14, allegedly inspired by “Daesh ideology”.
Albanese said his government would examine whether police and intelligence services have the shared powers, structures and arrangements “to keep Australians safe”.
“He [Daesh]”Last Sunday's terrorism-inspired atrocity reinforces our nation's rapidly changing security environment,” he said.
“Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond.”
Suspected gunman Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police during the Bondi attack. An Indian national, he entered Australia with a visa in 1998.
His son Naveed, 24, an Australian citizen, remains in hospital under police guard 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 at the time it was determined that he did not pose a threat, according to Australian authorities.
His father was also questioned by the intelligence service as part of that review, but managed to obtain a weapons license that allowed him to possess six firearms.
A few weeks before the Bondi Beach attack, the couple returned to Sydney from a four-week trip to the southern Philippines that is now being investigated by detectives there and in Australia.
Albanese said there were “real issues” with Australia's intelligence service in light of the attack.
“We need to examine exactly the way the systems work. We need to remember what happened in 2019 when they examined this person, the assessment that was done,” he told the national broadcaster. alphabet.
Asked in a separate interview about the alleged gunmen's stay at a hotel on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, Albanese said their radicalization was under investigation.
“But it is also the case that they were not seen as persons of interest, and that is 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.
Staff at GV Hotel Davao City have said AFP that the two men remained locked in their small room for most of their 28-day stay.
They typically 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 reviewed CCTV footage to trace the couple and find out who they met, said the father had visited a gun shop.
Clarke Jones, a criminologist at the Australian National University, said it was “very, very unusual” to have a father and son as alleged perpetrators.
Once in the Philippines, the couple could have easily traveled to Mindanao without raising any flags, he said. AFP.
Jones, who has worked with violent criminals in the Philippines, said the radicalization of the suspected gunmen had apparently gone “under the radar” for years after the Australian intelligence investigation.
“I think we would really need to look at what happened and whether that child, when he was first detected, should have been put through some type of support program to prevent this from happening,” he said.
