A man accused of perpetrating Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in three decades will be charged later on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, as the funerals of the Jewish victims of Sunday’s attack began.
The alleged father-and-son perpetrators opened fire on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, in an attack that shook the nation and intensified fears of rising antisemitism and violent extremism.
Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene, while his 24-year-old son, named in local media as Naveed Akram, emerged from a coma on Wednesday after also being shot by police.
Advertisement
“He will be charged formally, if he hasn’t been so already, I would expect that will take place over the coming hours,” Albanese said in a podcast interview on Wednesday morning.
Investigators expect to question the son once medication wears off and legal counsel is present, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said. He remains in a Sydney hospital under heavy police guard. The men accused of carrying out Sunday’s attack had travelled to the southern Philippines, a region long plagued by Islamist militancy, weeks before the shooting that Australian police said appeared to be inspired by Islamic State.
Advertisement
A funeral for Rabbi Eli Schlanger, an assistant rabbi at Chabad Bondi Synagogue and a father of five, was held on Wednesday. He was known for his work for Sydney’s Jewish community through Chabad, a global organisation fostering Jewish identity and connection. Schlanger would travel to prisons and meet Jewish people living in Sydney’s public housing communities, Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin said on Monday.