Sheik Man Haron Monis, an Islamic ‘spiritual healer’ who’s going through prices of sexual assault and being an adjunct to homicide, has been identified as the person who has taken civilians hostage in a Sydney café, in response to native media citing police sources.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott introduced that the Iranian-born hostage taker was mentally unstable.
“He [Man Haron Monis] had a long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism, and mental instability,” Abbott mentioned. “As the siege unfolded…he sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the ISIL death cult.”
Abbott mentioned that Australian authorities knew of the suspect’s extremist outlook previous to the hostage siege, from risk letters he despatched to Australian troopers deployed within the Middle East.
“We know that he sent offensive letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan and was found guilty of offences related to this,” he mentioned. “We also know that he posted graphic extremist material online. Tragically, there are people in our community ready to engage in politically motivated violence.”
At the identical time, Abbott praised police conduct in the course of the tense hours of the standoff. “There’s no operational reason for that name to be held back by us now,” an nameless police supply instructed Reuters.
The Iranian-born 50-year-old fled to Australia in 1996, however got here to prominence after 2007, when he started sending “hate mail” to households of troopers, who died whereas preventing in Iraq.
Despite claiming to be a peace advocate, and even chaining himself to a courthouse, Monis was sentenced to 300 hours of neighborhood service final yr.