Sydney Siege Spurs Demand to Know Why Gunman Was on Bail

By Jason Scott and Kambiz Foroohar  

Photographer: Nick Ralston/Fairfax Media/Fairfax Media via Getty Images

Man Haron Monis, gunman in the Lindt Chocolat Cafe siege in Martin Place, Sydney,... Read More

Australian authorities are probing why the gunman responsible for a deadly Sydney hostage-taking was free on bail and not on a watchlist, despite his history of violence and extremist sympathies.
Man Haron Monis, 50, died along with two of his captives in the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in the early hours of Tuesday, after a 16-hour siege. The self-proclaimed cleric from Iran was awaiting trial on a string of charges including being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife, and had warned that Australia faced an attack for sending troops to Afghanistan.
“We particularly need to know how someone with such a long record of violence, such a long record of mental instability, was out on bail after his
involvement in a particularly horrific crime,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters in Canberra today when announcing an urgent probe into the siege with a report due by the end of January.
The government’s review will examine and make recommendations about “Monis’ arrival in Australia and subsequent granting of asylum and citizenship, what information agencies had about him and how it was shared; and whether relevant national security legislative powers could have been better used,” Abbott said in a statement. The head of the prime minister’s own department and the most senior civil servant in New South Wales state will jointly prepare the report, he said.

Photographer: Jennifer Polixenni Brankin/Getty Images

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and wife Margie pay their respects at the Martin Place... Read More

The state’s premier, Mike Baird, echoed Abbott’s concerns and said Sydneysiders had “every right to feel upset” that Monis had been at large.

Tourist Agency

Monis arrived in Australia in 1996 claiming to be a refugee. Iran’s Fars news agency said Australia denied an attempt to extradite him back to the Islamic Republic, where he’d been indicted for fraud and went by the name of Mohammad Hassan Manteghi Bourjerdi.
He had worked as the managing director of a tourist agency in Iran and fled the country with about $200,000 of clients’ money, a former co-worker said in a telephone interview. He collected money from about 50 families for tickets and visa fees for European countries and after about seven months disappeared with the funds, said Sassan Khalebani.
“He didn’t act crazy or strange,” Khalebani said. “He was a good manager, that is until he stole the money.”
Monis defrauded his clients and fled to Malaysia and then to Australia, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, Iran’s chief of police, was cited by Fars news as saying. He described the gunman as a conman who changed his name and put on clerical robes to get political asylum.

Offensive Letters

Monis faced charges including being an accessory with his girlfriend to the murder of his ex-wife, who was stabbed and then set alight in Sydney. He had also been charged this year with sexual offenses dating back a decade, when he had operated as a “spiritual healer,” according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
He was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and placed on a two-year good-behavior bond for writing offensive letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, the Herald reported. Monis failed in his final bid to overturn that indictment on Dec. 12, court documents show.
In November 2013, Monis challenged Abbott to a debate so he could prove that “Australia and Australians will be attacked,” because of the country’s involvement in Afghanistan, according to the gunman’s website.

Sawnoff Shotgun

“We’re all outraged that this guy was on the street,” Baird said yesterday. “We need to understand why he was, we also need to understand why he wasn’t picked up, and we’ll be working closely with the federal authorities together with our own agencies to ensure what we can do better.”
State Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione told reporters today his force had applied to have Monis refused bail and that the decision had been taken by the courts.
Authorities are also investigating how Monis acquired the sawnoff shotgun apparently used in the attack, Abbott said.
Monis held 17 hostages in the cafe on Martin Place, a plaza at the heart of Sydney’s financial and legal district, and forced some to hold a black Islamic flag known as a Shahada against the window.
Mother-of-three Katrina Dawson, a 38-year-old barrister, and cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34, were killed.
Three others and a police officer received gunshot wounds. Five of the hostages escaped from the building on the first day, while about six fled in the closing moments of the siege.

Hostage Escape

John O’Brien, 83, who was one of the first hostages to escape, told reporters today he’d gone for a coffee after having an eye checkup. He paid tribute to the emergency services and fellow hostages and said he was “grateful to be home with my lovely wife.”
“I have never felt such a relief as I did when I turned that corner and saw the armed police waiting,” O’Brien said.
Abbott’s government raised the terrorism alert to the highest level in a decade in September, citing the threat posed by supporters of Islamic State, or ISIS.
His Liberal-National coalition has passed counter-terrorism legislation aimed at disrupting planned domestic attacks and has supported the international coalition to degrade ISIS in the Middle East.
Yesterday, Abbott said the siege was a “brush with terrorism” that illustrated why the government was pushing through anti-terrorism laws, including legislation to enforce telecommunication companies to store metadata for at least two years.
The prime minister’s comments may have been premature, according to Gavin Smith, a senior lecturer in sociology at the Australian National University in Canberra.
“We need to know all the facts and start thinking about the wider cultural, political and foreign policy issues that may have contributed to this,” said Smith, author of a book on electronic surveillance titled “Opening the Black Box: The Work of Watching.”