{"id":193454,"date":"2025-12-20T13:36:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/193454\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T13:36:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:36:23","slug":"man-resembling-bondi-gunman-naveed-akram-caught-on-philippines-cctv-in-mid-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/193454\/","title":{"rendered":"Man resembling Bondi gunman Naveed Akram caught on Philippines CCTV in mid-November"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive by ABC correspondent Tim Swanston and Haidarr Jones in Davao, Philippines<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\nThe man in the vision was seen walking close to the GV Hotel.
\nPhoto: ABC News \/ Supplied\n<\/p>\n

A man resembling suspected Bondi gunman Naveed Akram<\/a> has been captured on CCTV in Davao in mid-November, as authorities continue to investigate the movements of him and his father, Sajid Akram, in the lead-up to the attack.<\/p>\n

In a video obtained exclusively by the ABC, a man resembling the 24-year-old is seen walking down a Davao street on 11 November, just before 5am, local time.<\/p>\n

The CCTV was filmed near a hotel where staff say the pair stayed from 1 November to 28 November.<\/p>\n

The man in the video has his head down and appears to be looking at his phone while walking.<\/p>\n

Two hotel staff members who viewed the CCTV footage told the ABC they were confident the man in the video was Naveed Akram.<\/p>\n

They said the man in the video was dressed the same way Naveed Akram generally was when he would leave the hotel: in a T-shirt, shorts and thongs.<\/p>\n

They also said the man in the video had the same haircut and facial hair as Naveed Akram when he was staying at the hotel.<\/p>\n

In addition, the hotel staff said the man’s gait matched Naveed Akram’s, as well as his build.<\/p>\n

Several hours after ABC News obtained the CCTV, local plain-clothed police visited the business and copied the footage.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\nThe Philippines Army Bomb Squad searched the GV Hotel on Friday.
\nPhoto: ABC News \/ Haidarr Jones\n<\/p>\n

Gunmen spent four weeks holed up in hotel room: staff<\/p>\n

The development comes a day after staff at GV Hotel in Davao, on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao, said Naveed and Sajid Akram stayed in the hotel for four weeks in November.<\/p>\n

Immigration officials have confirmed the gunmen flew to Davao on 1 November and departed on 28 November.<\/p>\n

Officers from the Philippines military bomb squad unit briefly swept the GV Hotel on Friday.<\/p>\n

Four members of the Armed Forces Philippines (AFP), along with a sniffer dog, walked through several floors of the building in Davao.<\/p>\n

They were there for 10 minutes before leaving.<\/p>\n

Military personnel, along with police, were seen routinely driving down the street past the hotel for most of the day on Friday.<\/p>\n

The ABC has seen logs from the hotel showing the check-in and check-out dates under Naveed Akram’s name.<\/p>\n

The logs show he checked in at 11:40pm on 1 November, made weekly payments, then checked out at 12:05pm on 28 November.<\/p>\n

Hotel staff said the pair generally stayed in their rooms for the entire stay, leaving for just one or two hours a day.<\/p>\n

During the overnight shift, the hotel only has one staff member rostered on, who casually monitors the front desk. The CCTV was recorded by a neighbouring business during this window.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\nThe GV Hotel is in downtown Davao, near the city hall and the police station.
\nPhoto: ABC News \/ Haidarr Jones\n<\/p>\n

Gunmen’s movements in Philippines under police investigation<\/p>\n

Philippine and Australian police are still investigating how the pair spent their time in the Philippines in the lead-up to the attack at Bondi Beach.<\/p>\n

The revelation that they had travelled to Davao, the largest city in Mindanao, had fuelled speculation about why the gunmen spent time in the region before the shooting.<\/p>\n

A senior counter-terrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, earlier this week told the ABC that the pair allegedly underwent “military-style training”<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n

Mindanao has long struggled with Islamic militancy and has been described as a “hotspot” for violent extremism.<\/p>\n

Davao is a half-day drive from the Mindanao regions of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, areas that still have some extremist militants who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State.<\/p>\n

These groups are understood to be limited in size, with access to few resources.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Islamic State militants were killed when Philippines regained control of the Lanao del Sur city of Marawi, after it was seized by IS-aligned fighters in 2017.<\/p>\n

The CCTV raises questions about how Naveed and Sajid may have spent their time in the country.<\/p>\n

\"Tributes<\/p>\n

\nTributes from mourners are piled together at the Bondi Pavilion in memory of the victims of a shooting at Bondi Beach.
\nPhoto: Saeed Khan\n<\/p>\n

Philippine authorities say ‘no evidence’ gunmen received training in country<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the country’s national security adviser, Eduardo Ano, said he rejected “reports describing Mindanao as a hotspot for violent extremism or Islamic State ideology”.<\/p>\n

“There is no valid report or confirmation that the two received any form of military training while in the country, and no evidence supports such a claim at present,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Philippine security forces have significantly degraded ISIS-affiliated groups in the country.<\/p>\n

“The remnants of these groups have been fragmented, deprived of leadership, and operationally degraded.”<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a Davao spokesperson for the Philippine National Police (PNP) said they were still investigating whether Naveed and Sajid Akram arrived in Davao and whether they travelled elsewhere.<\/p>\n

A Philippines Immigration spokesperson told the ABC that the pair had never been to the country before November.<\/p>\n

The PNP has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

– ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exclusive by ABC correspondent Tim Swanston and Haidarr Jones in Davao, Philippines The man in the vision was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-193454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}