Accused Bondi attack gunman denied order to suppress family members’ identities
Judge lifts interim suppression order, allowing publication of accused gunman’s family identities in Bondi terror case
A man accused of killing 15 people in a terror attack targeting a Hanukkah event at Australia’s Bondi Beach has lost a bid to have the identities of his family members suppressed.
Naveed Akram, 24, is accused of 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act over the attack in which dozens of people were injured at Sydney’s Archer Park in December
His father, Sajid, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene.
Akram appeared via video link during a hearing at Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney on Thursday, after applying for a non-publication order relating to the details of his immediate family members.
Local Court Judge Hugh Donnelly dismissed the application and an interim suppression order that had temporarily blocked the publication of the names and addresses of Akram’s mother, brother and sister, according to New South Wales (NSW) courts.
NSW Police allege Akram and his father carried out Australia’s worst mass shooting since 1996, targeting the Jewish festival of lights.
Among the victims was London-born Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, a father of five and assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi.
According to police, the father and son parked their vehicle near a footbridge overlooking Archer Park at Bondi at about 6.50pm on December 14.
It is alleged that a “tennis ball bomb” and three pipe bombs were thrown into the crowd before the pair opened fire.
None of the bombs detonated, but were deemed viable during preliminary police analysis.
In December, court documents made public police allegations that Sajid and Naveed Akram visited the area for “reconnaissance and planning” in the days before the attack.
Police also accused the pair of conducting firearms training in the Australian countryside.
Akram will return to court on Wednesday.
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