The alleged father-and-son duo opened fire at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, in an attack that shook the nation and raised concerns about rising antisemitism and violent extremism.
Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene, while his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, emerged from a coma on Wednesday after also being shot by police.
“He will be charged formally, if he hasn’t been so already. I expect that will take place in the coming hours,” Albanese said in a podcast interview Wednesday morning.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said investigators plan to question Naveed once his medication wears off and legal counsel is present. He remains hospitalized under heavy police guard.
Authorities revealed the suspects had traveled to the southern Philippines, a region long affected by militancy, weeks before the attack, which police said appeared to be inspired by Daesh (ISIS).
In the United States, President Donald Trump expressed solidarity at a White House Hanukkah event, saying he was thinking of the victims of the “horrific and antisemitic terrorist attack.”
“We join in mourning all of those who were killed, and we’re praying for the swift recovery of the wounded,” he added.
Funerals for Jewish victims begin
A funeral for Rabbi Eli Schlanger, an assistant rabbi at Chabad Bondi Synagogue and a father of five, was held on Wednesday.
He was known for his work for Sydney’s Jewish community through Chabad, a global organisation fostering Jewish identity and connection.
Schlanger would travel to prisons and meet with Jewish people living in Sydney's public housing communities, Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin said on Monday.
Albanese is facing criticism that his centre-left government did not do enough to prevent the spread of antisemitism in Australia during the two-year Israel-Gaza war.
"We will work with the Jewish community, we want to stamp out and eradicate antisemitism from our society," Albanese told reporters.
The government and intelligence services are also under pressure to explain why Sajid Akram was allowed to legally acquire the high powered rifles and shotguns used in the attack. The government has already promised sweeping reforms to gun laws.
Akram's son, meanwhile, was briefly investigated by Australia's domestic intelligence agency in 2019 over alleged links to Daesh, but there was no evidence at the time he posed a threat, Albanese said.
Man praises as hero to undergo surgery
Albanese said Ahmed al-Ahmed, 43, the man who tackled one of the shooters to disarm his rifle and suffered gunshot wounds, was due to undergo surgery on Wednesday.
Al-Ahmed's uncle, Mohammed al-Ahmed in Syria, said his nephew left his hometown in Syria's northwest province of Idlib nearly 20 years ago to seek work in Australia.
"We learned through social media. I called his father and he told me that it was Ahmed. Ahmed is a hero, we're proud of him. Syria in general is proud of him," the uncle told Reuters.
The family of 22-year-old police officer Jack Hibbert, who was shot twice on Sunday and had been on the force for just four months, said in a statement on Wednesday he had lost vision in one eye and faced a "long and challenging recovery" ahead.
"In the face of a violent and tragic incident, he responded with courage, instinct, and selflessness, continuing to protect and help others whilst injured, until he was physically no longer able to," the family said.
Health authorities said 22 people were still in several Sydney hospitals.
Holocaust survivor among victims
Other shooting victims included a Holocaust survivor, a husband and wife who first approached the gunmen before they started firing, and a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, according to interviews, officials and media reports.
Matilda's father told a Bondi vigil on Tuesday night he did not want his daughter's legacy to be forgotten.
"We came here from Ukraine … and I thought that Matilda is the most Australian name that can ever exist. So just remember the name, remember her," local media reported him as saying.
In Bondi on Wednesday, swimmers gathered on Sydney's most popular beach and held a minute's silence.
"This week has obviously been very profound, and this morning, I definitely feel a sense of the community getting together, and a sense of everyone sitting together," Archie Kalaf, a 24-year-old Bondi man, told Reuters. "Everyone's grieving, everyone's understanding and processing it in their own way."
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