Father-son gunmen Sajid and Naveed Akram travelled to the Philippines to receive “military-style training” in the month before they killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, security sources have confirmed.
The revelation comes after the ABC reported Naveed Akram, 24, had longstanding links to members of Australia’s pro-Islamic State (IS) network — including to notorious jihadist spiritual leader Wisam Haddad and convicted IS youth recruiter Youssef Uweinat.
Through a lawyer, Mr Haddad has said he “vehemently denies any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings that took place at Bondi Beach”.
Investigators are now examining the Akrams’ ties to an international jihadist network, after discovering the pair travelled to Manila in early November, according to officials briefed on the investigation.
Read more on the Bondi Beach shooting:
Naveed and Sajid Akram then journeyed to the southern Philippines and underwent militant training, said a senior counter-terrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The pair returned to Australia in late November, officials said, just weeks before Sunday’s massacre at Bondi Beach.
The Philippines has been a hotspot for Islamist militants since the early 1990s, when terrorist training camps previously on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border were re-established in southern Mindanao.
Security sources have not confirmed the pair’s exact locations and movements in the southern Philippines.
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Australia’s intelligence agency, ASIO, had investigated Naveed Akram in 2019 over his associations with members of a Sydney-based IS terrorist cell, the ABC revealed yesterday.
A senior security source said Naveed Akram, then 18, displayed “indications of intent” and associations of concern that were investigated by ASIO in 2019, but further enquiries were not deemed to be needed at the time.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the 7.30 program on Monday night that ASIO found “no evidence” during a six-month investigation that either the father or son had been radicalised.
Video shows Bondi gunman preaching to teens
The men were not on a terrorism watchlist in the lead-up to the attack, nor was Sajid Akram — a licensed gun owner — prevented from legally accessing firearms.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke was asked on Radio National today whether the pair’s travel to the Philippines had come to the attention of Australia’s national security agencies, but he did not directly answer the question.
Mr Burke said that since ASIO’s 2019 investigation into Naveed Akram, “there was a radical change in the risk profile of that individual”.
The ABC revealed on Monday that two Islamic State flags were found in the Akrams’ car at Bondi Beach, and investigators believed the pair had sworn allegiance to the terrorist group.
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