Latest / The Front / Inside the alleged plan to slaughter Jews on Bondi Beach
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Kristanamio.
- 0:06Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, December twenty three, twenty twenty five. Homemade pipe bombs,
- 0:14Speaker 1: firearms training and a reconnaissance mission. New details of last
- 0:18Speaker 1: Sunday's Bondai Beach terror attack have come to light after
- 0:22Speaker 1: court documents in the police case against alleged gunman Navid
- 0:26Speaker 1: Akram were made public. A twenty two page document details
- 0:30Speaker 1: the alleged actions of Akram and his fifty year old father, Sajid,
- 0:35Speaker 1: in the weeks and months before they allegedly opened fire
- 0:38Speaker 1: on a Hanaker event. Sajid Akram was shot dead by
- 0:42Speaker 1: police at the scene, while his son was critically injured.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Navid Akram was transferred from Sydney's Royal north Shore Hospital
- 0:51Speaker 1: to a maximum security prison on Monday after waking from
- 0:55Speaker 1: a coma last week. He's been charged with fifty nine
- 0:59Speaker 1: offenses relating to the attack, including fifteen counts of murder,
- 1:03Speaker 1: forty counts of wounding with intent to murder, and one
- 1:06Speaker 1: count of committing a terrorist offense. He's not yet been
- 1:10Speaker 1: required to enter a plea, and he's expected to defend
- 1:13Speaker 1: the charges if and when the matter comes to trial today.
- 1:18Speaker 1: Inside the alleged plan to slaughter Jews as they celebrated
- 1:21Speaker 1: the Festival of Light Country New South Wales in late October,
- 1:33Speaker 1: a lush green field surrounded by gum trees is bathed
- 1:37Speaker 1: in spring sunlight, and there in the center, a man
- 1:42Speaker 1: clad in all black hoists a firearm onto his shoulder.
- 1:47Speaker 1: His head is cocked slightly to the right as he
- 1:50Speaker 1: peers down the barrel at his target out of frame.
- 1:54Speaker 1: Police alleged the man is fifty year old Sagird Akram
- 1:58Speaker 1: in training for an anti Semitic mass massacre. Another picture
- 2:02Speaker 1: allegedly shows Sajid's twenty four year old son, Navid, moving
- 2:06Speaker 1: across the green grass in what police call a tactical manner,
- 2:10Speaker 1: a firearm also in his hands. The vision steals from
- 2:16Speaker 1: a video, forms part of a twenty two page police
- 2:19Speaker 1: statement of facts in the case against Navid Akram, which
- 2:23Speaker 1: was released to the media on Monday. So let's talk
- 2:32Speaker 1: about some of the details that have emerged now. Police
- 2:36Speaker 1: alleged they found homemade pipe bombs in the vehicle allegedly
- 2:40Speaker 1: driven by Sajid and Navid Akram two Bondi Beach last Sunday.
- 2:44Speaker 1: Tell me about that.
- 2:46Speaker 2: So police discovered these homemade bombs. One was a tennis
- 2:50Speaker 2: ball bomb, one was an ied.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Juanna Panagopolis is a reporter with The Australian.
- 2:58Speaker 2: And a new piece of evidence that has emerged as
- 3:02Speaker 2: part of these alleged facts is that actually a number
- 3:06Speaker 2: of the bombs were thrown into the crowd of Jewish
- 3:11Speaker 2: people at Bondi Beach and thank goodness they didn't go off.
- 3:16Speaker 1: Let's talk about some of the footage that was included
- 3:20Speaker 1: in the police statement of fact. We've seen some stills
- 3:24Speaker 1: from that allegedly shows Sejered and Navid Akram undergoing firearms training.
- 3:31Speaker 1: Tell me a bit about some of the other video
- 3:34Speaker 1: that was allegedly found on Navid's phone of them expressing
- 3:38Speaker 1: their political and religious beliefs.
- 3:41Speaker 2: M a video in we haven't been given an exact date,
- 3:45Speaker 2: but we're told in October sometime, and given that the
- 3:49Speaker 2: video of them training which we have stills from is
- 3:52Speaker 2: from late October, so around that time. There is a
- 3:55Speaker 2: particular video where we're told they are sitting in front
- 3:59Speaker 2: of a wood handled wall. They've got an image of
- 4:02Speaker 2: the IS flag that sort of plastered up behind them.
- 4:06Speaker 2: They're sitting side by side, they've got four rifles next
- 4:09Speaker 2: to them, and they're giving their statement of what they
- 4:14Speaker 2: plan to do at Bondai, what they see as their motivation.
- 4:19Speaker 2: So we're not told much about exactly what they say
- 4:21Speaker 2: in this video and we haven't seen it, but the
- 4:24Speaker 2: police fact state that they want to condemn the acts
- 4:27Speaker 2: of Zionis. That's what they say is their motivation.
- 4:32Speaker 1: Over the last week, the New South Wales Police and
- 4:34Speaker 1: the Australian Federal Police have come out very strongly and
- 4:37Speaker 1: said they believe that Sajid and Navid Akram were allegedly
- 4:42Speaker 1: motivated by what they called an extremist Islamic ideology that
- 4:46Speaker 1: does seem to align with what you've been told is
- 4:50Speaker 1: in this video and what appears in the police fact
- 4:53Speaker 1: sheet that was released on Monday.
- 4:55Speaker 2: Yeah, very much so. There are a number of statements
- 4:59Speaker 2: in the fact sheet that say this is religiously motivated
- 5:02Speaker 2: and based on an Isis ideology. And also when police
- 5:08Speaker 2: were searching their car after this had all unfolded last Sunday,
- 5:12Speaker 2: the police fact state they found two Isis flags which
- 5:16Speaker 2: were hand painted, so it's like a black flag with
- 5:19Speaker 2: white sort of paint. Drawn in the shape of an
- 5:23Speaker 2: Isis symbol.
- 5:25Speaker 1: The footage that appears in the police fact sheet isn't
- 5:28Speaker 1: just a footage that was allegedly discovered on Navid Akrem's phone.
- 5:32Speaker 1: There is also CCTV footage. Where was that taken from
- 5:36Speaker 1: and what does it appear to show.
- 5:39Speaker 2: We have the CCTV footage from when they're leaving this
- 5:43Speaker 2: airbnb that they rented over a period from December twod
- 5:48Speaker 2: to December twenty one, and it shows them leaving on
- 5:52Speaker 2: December fourteenth, the morning of the attack. I think it's
- 5:55Speaker 2: something like two am, and Navid is carrying this bundle
- 6:00Speaker 2: of sort of sheets and blankets in the shape of guns.
- 6:05Speaker 2: It would appear they're put in the boot of the car,
- 6:09Speaker 2: and throughout that day we get a sense of where
- 6:12Speaker 2: they travel to. We meet them again in the pictures
- 6:16Speaker 2: at about six pm they pull over on the side
- 6:18Speaker 2: of the road in Wullara on their way to the attack,
- 6:21Speaker 2: which we know now happens at six point forty seven,
- 6:25Speaker 2: and they pull over. It doesn't say it in the
- 6:27Speaker 2: police facts but from our research we know that's almost
- 6:30Speaker 2: directly across the road from a synagogue in Sydney. Sajid
- 6:34Speaker 2: goes to the back of the car, opens the boot
- 6:36Speaker 2: and you can see the ISIS flag that's hanging there,
- 6:40Speaker 2: which he would later put in the front and the
- 6:42Speaker 2: back windows of the car. We also have them in
- 6:46Speaker 2: a reconnaissance mission. I guess that the police have alleged
- 6:51Speaker 2: two days before this all unfolded on December twelfth in
- 6:55Speaker 2: the evening and they just pull in to the car
- 6:59Speaker 2: park at Bondeibis and they park there. They walk up
- 7:03Speaker 2: to the footbridge where we now know that this all unfolded,
- 7:09Speaker 2: They sort of look over. As we know two days
- 7:12Speaker 2: later they would come back and Australia would be different.
- 7:21Speaker 1: Coming up, what the police say about the Akrams international travel.
- 7:39Speaker 1: You mentioned that Sajid and Navid Akram allegedly hired an
- 7:43Speaker 1: Airbnb property in Campsy, which is in Western City, not
- 7:46Speaker 1: too far from Bonnie Rig where their family home is.
- 7:49Speaker 1: They were in and out of that property, as you said,
- 7:52Speaker 1: over a period of weeks from the start of December,
- 7:54Speaker 1: but they had police allege a cover story for where
- 7:58Speaker 1: they were in the week leading up to the massacre.
- 8:02Speaker 1: What did Serjed's wife and David's mother tell police.
- 8:06Speaker 2: So when she was interviewed by police, she told them
- 8:09Speaker 2: that she believed they were on a holiday in southern
- 8:12Speaker 2: New South Wales. The police fact sheet doesn't say exactly
- 8:16Speaker 2: where they were, but she says to police that she
- 8:20Speaker 2: was called by her son Nevid every morning at about
- 8:24Speaker 2: ten thirty am and he would tell her what the
- 8:27Speaker 2: plan was for that day.
- 8:30Speaker 1: Police and intelligence agencies have said in the lead up
- 8:34Speaker 1: to the release of these court documents that Serjed and
- 8:37Speaker 1: David Akram traveled to the Philippines not too long before
- 8:41Speaker 1: the massacre occurred. ISIS is known to be active in
- 8:45Speaker 1: that region. Does the police fact sheet released on Monday
- 8:48Speaker 1: say anything about that travel.
- 8:50Speaker 2: No, it doesn't say anything about the Philippines, And I'm
- 8:53Speaker 2: sure a lot more will have to be added to
- 8:55Speaker 2: the evidence into this fact sheet in due course. But
- 8:58Speaker 2: basically we leave them in the fact sheet in late October,
- 9:03Speaker 2: they hire the Airbnb and then we don't meet them
- 9:06Speaker 2: again until I think it's December twelfth, when they're on
- 9:09Speaker 2: that reconnaissance mission. So there is that massive window where
- 9:13Speaker 2: we now know that they were in the Philippines for
- 9:15Speaker 2: a month in this area known for ISIS activity, and
- 9:20Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot more of that will have to
- 9:22Speaker 2: come out in police evidence in due course.
- 9:35Speaker 1: Joanna Panagopolis is a reporter with The Australian. You can
- 9:39Speaker 1: read the latest on this developing story right now at
- 9:41Speaker 1: The Australian dot com dot au