Overview
- Prosecutors say the Dec. 14 attack at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach killed 15 people and wounded dozens, and police shot dead 50-year-old Sajid Akram while his 25-year-old son Naveed Akram was wounded and arrested.
- Naveed Akram faces 78 charges, including committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and 43 counts of attempted murder, and he will next appear at Downing Centre Local Court on October 28.
- Investigators have examined more than 800 witness statements along with video and ballistics evidence, and they have already extracted data from seven electronic devices while data from another 12 devices and an IED testing report remain to be reviewed.
- Police describe the weapons used as three aluminium pipe bombs and a tennis-ball bomb filled with gunpowder and steel ball bearings that failed to detonate, and officers say a box-like device and two hand-painted Islamic State flags were found in the attackers’ car.
- A court order granting witness anonymity has led protected witnesses to begin giving statements, a step that prosecutors say is helping evidence gathering but will lengthen disclosure timetables as specialist testing and careful witness protection continue.