A father and son accused of carrying out Australia’s worst terrorist attack were undergoing firearms training at an undisclosed location in the countryside, according to a statement of facts released by a magistrate on Monday.
The redacted court documents include images from a video of Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed Akram, 24, showing them holding rifles and making movements that suggest elements of tactical training.
“The defendant and his father can be seen firing a shotgun and moving tactically throughout the video,” the document states.
Fifteen people were killed in the December 14th shooting at Bondi Beach, which authorities said targeted a crowd of Jewish families celebrating Hanukkah. Sajid Akram was shot dead by police. His son faces terrorism charges, 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of attempted murder.
According to the alleged facts, the pair threw four improvised devices into the crowd just before they began shooting, but none of them exploded. The document states that all three pipe bombs and one tennis ball bomb were viable.
The documents included images of IEDs, including what appeared to be a fifth bomb placed in the boot of the vehicle used to drive to Bondi to carry out the attack.
The two were also said to have recorded videos in which they shared opinions suggesting they espoused a “religiously motivated violent extremist ideology.”
In one video recorded in front of an image of the Islamic State flag, the two made statements “condemning Zionist actions” and appeared to “summarize the legitimacy of the Bondi terrorist attack,” the document added.
“There is evidence that the defendant and his father meticulously planned this terrorist attack for many months,” the document states.
This document further develops a new picture of the events leading up to the attack.
The video, which appears to show men training with firearms in rural New South Wales, is said to have been filmed in October. Police previously said the couple traveled to the Philippines in November and stayed for nearly a month, barely leaving their room, a hotel employee told CNN.
Documents released on Monday reveal the men visited the scene of the Bondi Beach attack on December 12. Closed-circuit television showed the men walking on a footbridge near Archer Park, and it is claimed they shot the victim from there two days later.
“Police allege this is evidence of reconnaissance and planning for a terrorist act,” court documents state.
Hours after the shooting, police rushed to an address in Bonnyrigg, west of Sydney city centre, where they found two telephones, a homemade firearm, a longbow with 12 arrows and a Quran with highlighted passages, documents said.
The elderly man’s wife told police she believed the man and his son were on holiday in southern New South Wales. Documents say her son called her every day from a payphone to tell her what he planned to do that day.
It added that the day after the attack, officers forced open the door to a rented room where the men were believed to be staying in Campsie, south-west Sydney. There, officers found 3D-printed parts for a shotgun speedloader, bomb-making equipment, a long bow with 12 arrows and two copies of the Quran, one of which contained “designated pages,” documents said.
Naveed Akram was shot in the abdomen as police tried to stop the bloodshed, documents said. From his hospital bed, he refused a request for a formal police interview on legal advice. Mr Akram will next appear in court in April.
This is breaking news and will be updated.
