The agency interviewed both men in 2019 as part of an investigation into Naveed Akram’s links to the IS cell.<\/p>\n
ASIO said that after a six-month investigation, conducted using its “most sensitive capabilities”, it assessed Naveed Akram “did not adhere to or intend to engage in violent extremism”.<\/p>\n
Do you know more?Contact Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop on Signal: @seanrdunlop01 and on Protonmail: seanrdunlop@protonmail.com<\/a>Please use this form<\/a> to get in contact with the ABC Investigations team, or if you require more secure communication, please choose an option on the confidential tips page<\/a><\/p>\n In the wake of the Bondi attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Sajid Akram had shown “no indication of any radicalisation” during his 2019 interview with ASIO.<\/p>\n A Commonwealth security official told Four Corners that Sajid Akram gave assurances during the investigation that his then-18-year-old son would cut ties with IS sympathisers.<\/p>\n But investigators, examining the attack, now believe Sajid Akram may have already been radicalised when he met with ASIO about his son, according to a senior counterterrorism official with close knowledge of the investigation.<\/p>\n The revelations have raised new questions about possible intelligence failures that allowed Sajid Akram to legally acquire firearms and travel with his son to a former Islamic State hotspot in the Philippines without triggering an alert \u2014 matters now under examination by a royal commission.<\/p>\n Sajid Akram and his son Naveed during their attack at Bondi Beach on December 14. (Supplied: Jessica Rozen)<\/p>\n A shared appreciation for Al Qaeda cleric<\/p>\n Before he was shot dead by police at Bondi Beach, Sajid Akram was a mystery to some who knew him.<\/p>\n He arrived in Australia from India on a student visa in 1998, married a non-Muslim woman and reportedly became estranged from his Indian family.<\/p>\n By his 40s, he worked in fruit shops and attended a Sydney mosque, where he met Ye Ye, a vocal preacher in Australia’s pro-IS network.<\/p>\n Ye Ye told Four Corners he bonded with Sajid Akram over their interest in the early lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki, the US-born Al Qaeda cleric killed in a US drone strike in 2011.<\/p>\n Ye Ye is the right-hand man to Wisam Haddad, a spiritual leader in Australia’s pro-IS network.<\/p>\n Ye Ye, a preacher in Australia’s pro-IS network, said he met Sajid Akram at a Sydney mosque. (The Dawah Van)<\/p>\n From at least 2012, Ye Ye was active in street-preaching groups that recruited young Australians into terrorism and were monitored by authorities.<\/p>\n Ye Ye told the ABC that he introduced Naveed to one such group, Bankstown Street Dawah, after meeting his father.<\/p>\n ASIO’s undercover agent, Marcus, was operating inside the group at the time, posing as a radical cleric.<\/p>\n In late May 2019, Ye Ye invited Marcus and Naveed to attend itikaf, a 10-night religious retreat for Ramadan, at Sydney’s Othman Bin Affan Mosque with members of an IS cell.<\/p>\n Marcus claimed he reported to ASIO that the IS sympathisers tried to brainwash Naveed with propaganda videos and discussed plans for terrorist attacks in Sydney.<\/p>\n The mosque’s president said Sajid Akram also attended itikaf.<\/p>\n He said Naveed was engaging with a “hostile, confrontational” group of men that was ultimately told to leave and “never to come back”.<\/p>\n Among the group was Isaac El Matari, the self-declared leader of Islamic State in Australia.<\/p>\n Isaac El Matari attended the same religious retreat Sajid and Naveed Akram attended in May 2019.<\/p>\n “Sajid and Naveed had attended the mosque regularly,” the mosque’s president said in a statement.<\/p>\n “After spending time with that group during itikaf, they stopped attending altogether.<\/p>\n “If we had known there was any link to extremism or any threat to safety, we would have reported it.”<\/p>\n He said the mosque “stands firmly against extremism and hate”.<\/p>\n ‘I thought Sajid was more extremist than his son’<\/p>\n ASIO began investigating associates of El Matari after he was arrested in July 2019 for planning terrorist attacks and attempting to travel to Afghanistan to join IS.<\/p>\n Marcus claimed that the investigation infuriated Sajid.<\/p>\n Marcus (left) posed as a radical cleric to gather intelligence on Islamic extremists for ASIO.<\/p>\n Marcus claimed Sajid Akram arrived at Street Dawah later that year with Naveed, angry that his son had come to ASIO’s attention.<\/p>\n Marcus told Four Corners that Sajid expressed his support for IS, for El Matari and for his foiled plans for terror attacks in Sydney.<\/p>\n “He [Sajid] justified his [Isaac El Matari’s] plans as it’s required from us as Muslims \u2014 to support the Islamic State, to fight on behalf of them,” he said.<\/p>\n “And if we couldn’t do that, we have to do hijrah \u2014 emigrate to join them.”<\/p>\n Marcus said it was rare to hear such openness in a community where people were typically wary of surveillance.<\/p>\n “After this conversation, I thought Sajid was more extremist than his son,” said Marcus, who is offering to provide his evidence to the royal commission.<\/p>\n ASIO told of Bondi shooter’s terror links years ago, ex-spy claims<\/a><\/p>\n The former undercover agent spied on the Akrams when he infiltrated a Sydney IS terror cell for Australia’s intelligence agency.<\/p>\n Marcus said he reported to ASIO that he believed both Akrams were IS supporters.<\/p>\n Four Corners has not independently verified the substance of Marcus’s specific conversations with ASIO or the Akrams.<\/p>\n Multiple sources have confirmed Marcus attended itikaf with Naveed Akram and Ye Ye. Social media videos showed them participating in Street Dawah at the same time.<\/p>\n Marcus claimed the Akrams attended Wisam Haddad’s radical prayer hall, Al Madina Dawah Centre, over several years.<\/p>\n ASIO did not respond to questions about whether it received intelligence about that.<\/p>\n Investigation could not substantiate Marcus’s claims: ASIO<\/p>\n In a statement, the agency said it investigated Marcus’s claims but found them to be “unsubstantiated”.<\/p>\n “The ABC’s source \u2026 claimed Naveed Akram said and did things that were actually said and done by an entirely different person,” ASIO said.<\/p>\n “Therefore the associated claims are untrue.”<\/p>\n Marcus rejected that.<\/p>\n “I strongly deny ASIO’s allegation that I ever misidentified Naveed Akram, someone I met on a regular, face-to-face basis over many years,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n ASIO declined to respond to further questions about when and how the misidentification occurred or which claims it disputed.<\/p>\n Neil Fergus, a respected intelligence consultant who has a complaint against ASIO over a separate matter, said that if Marcus’s suspicions were true at the time, the case had the “hallmarks” of an intelligence failure.<\/p>\n “If that assertion is true and that information was reported clearly to ASIO, then there was certainly prima facie a basis for further actions,” he said.<\/p>\n Neil Fergus says if Marcus’s suspicions were true, the case has the “hallmarks” of an intelligence failure. (Four Corners: Sissy Reyes)<\/p>\n He said the royal commission and the review of law enforcement and intelligence by former ASIO head Dennis Richardson would “undoubtedly” need to look into the evidence.<\/p>\n Marcus’s relationship with ASIO began to fall apart in 2022.<\/p>\n He was charged that year with multiple accounts of assault and stalking, which were later withdrawn and dismissed.<\/p>\n His cover was also blown, and he took out a restraining order, telling a Sydney court that extremists threatened to harm him because they discovered his work with ASIO.<\/p>\n ASIO withdrew its support for his permanent residency, and he left the country in 2023.<\/p>\n Marcus is now in hiding overseas, protecting himself after receiving death threats and offering to provide evidence to the royal commission.<\/p>\n He is seeking Australia’s assistance with protection and resettlement.<\/p>\n Marcus says his intelligence helped prevent terror attacks and secure the prosecutions of terrorists. (Four Corners: Sissy Reyes)<\/p>\n Marcus previously warned Australians were dangerously exposed to IS extremism<\/a> in a Four Corners interview eight months before the Bondi attack.<\/p>\n In its statement to Four Corners, ASIO described him as “unreliable and disgruntled”.<\/p>\n Marcus denied those claims.<\/p>\n “The allegation I am unreliable does not withstand scrutiny,” he said.<\/p>\n “If I were \u2026 ASIO would not have tasked me with infiltrating dangerous local and international terror networks and gathering important intelligence on their members.”<\/p>\n He said his intelligence resulted in “successful prosecutions of terrorists and prevention of a number of \u2026 terrorist attacks”.<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Rory Callinan<\/a>, Daryna Zadvirna<\/a> and Kirsten Robb<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/08b642a7fbdd7e8e9cd2bf303f3e1db9.jpeg\")
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