Bondi Beach gunmen Sajid and Naveed Akram stayed at a hotel in the southern city of Davao for the entire time they were in the Philippines and barely left their rooms, a hotel staff member has told a local news site.
“The longest that they would be outside would be around an hour, and they would be just back here in the hotel,” MindaNews quoted hotel worker Jenelyn Sayson of GV Hotel as saying.
GV Hotel in Davao, Philippines, where Sajid and Naveed Akram stayed before the Bondi massacre.Credit: Facebook
She said they originally booked in the downtown hotel from November 1, the day of their arrival in the Philippines, to November 8 before extending for a week at a time and eventually checking out on November 28. They flew out of the country via Manila that day.
MindaNews reported police guarding the hotel on Wednesday.
The hotel employee told the news site the Akrams rarely spoke with staff but didn’t raise any suspicion.
“We thought they probably had a business here in the city since they would go out and just come back again,” Sayson told the website.
Philippine authorities are investigating the father and son’s travel to the country in the month before the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in which 15 people were killed as well as 50-year-old Sajid Akram.
Mourners continue to gather at the Bondi Pavilion memorial following Sunday’s attack.Credit: Janie Barrett
Davao is the main city on the southern island of Mindanao, where Islamic militant groups including Islamic State East Asia have had a presence.
NSW Police found homemade Islamic State flags in the Akrams’ car after the massacre but Philippine officials have said there is no evidence they trained with Islamic extremists while in the country.
Philippines national security adviser Eduardo Ano said in a statement “a mere visit does not support allegations of terrorist training” and only remnants of Islamic State remained after being significantly degraded by the armed forces since the 2017 siege of Marawi, a Muslim city in Mindanao’s west.
Ano said there had been no recorded terrorist training or significant operations by IS-affiliated groups since 2017.