(JNS) Zionists were explicitly condemned in a video filmed by the alleged Bondi Beach gunmen as they outlined their justification for the terrorist attack that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah event, newly released Sydney court documents say.
Police said Naveed Akram, 24, and his father, Sajid, recorded themselves reciting a Koran passage, with the footage showing Naveed then speaking in English about their motivations for the “Bondi attack” and denouncing the actions of “Zionists” while seated in front of an Islamic State flag and surrounded by firearms, Australia’s ABC News reported on Monday.
Terrorists threw IEDs at the Hanukkah event
The pair are accused of throwing four improvised explosive devices at a Jewish crowd at Archer Park, which failed to detonate, before opening fire from a footbridge on the evening of Dec. 14.
Police said the pair parked their car on Campbell Parade in Bondi Beach at about 6:50 p.m. and then draped Islamic State flags over the front and rear windscreens. They then allegedly carried three firearms, three pipe bombs and a homemade “tennis ball bomb” as they walked toward the footbridge and began shooting at the Hanukkah by the Sea gathering.
One IED was found in the car that the gunmen drove from the Sydney suburb of Campsie, where they rented a property.
Naveed Akram faces 59 charges, including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act. He was moved on Monday from a hospital to a correctional facility after a Sydney court lifted an interim suppression order to release a redacted police statement of facts. His father was shot dead by police.
Father and son gunmen conducted firearms training
The accused Bondi gunman and his father also conducted firearms training in the countryside, another video dated to late October shows, with the location suspected to be in New South Wales. “The accused and his father are seen throughout the video firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner,” according to the court documents.
The document also reveals that two males, “believed to be the accused and his father,” were recorded on CCTV on the evening of Dec. 12 surveying the area of Archer Park, exiting their vehicle and walking along the footbridge they would later use as their position for the terrorist attack.
“Police allege that this is evidence of reconnaissance and planning of a terrorist act,” the court documents say.
Albanese receives hostile reception at Bondi vigil
Thousands of mourners gathered on Sunday evening at Bondi Beach to honor the victims one week after the deadliest terrorist incident and second-deadliest mass shooting in Australian history.
NSW Health said on Sunday afternoon that 13 patients remain hospitalized at the Prince of Wales, St George, St Vincent’s, Royal Prince Alfred and Royal North Shore hospitals, including four people in critical but stable condition and nine in stable condition.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered an apology on Monday, saying in Canberra that he is “sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced.”
The Labor Party leader was booed and heckled when he was introduced at Sunday’s vigil for the victims at Bondi Beach, in contrast to NSW Premier Chris Minns and Opposition Leader and local MP Kellie Sloane, who received standing ovations.
Albanese, who has called the Bondi Beach shooting an “antisemitic terrorist attack” and the alleged perpetrators “evil antisemitic terrorists,” continues to face criticism over his government’s approach to the problem of Jew-hatred in Australia.
In August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu castigated the Australian leader for his failure to confront antisemitism, writing in a letter that his “call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.” Albanese is also facing accusations of avoiding confronting jihadist Islamist violence by deflecting to gun control in the wake of the massacre.
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