Bondi shooting: Akram’s trip to Philippines likely involved ‘psychological preparation’ for massacre

Experts say the Bondi gunmen’s trip to the Philippines last month would have involved “psychological preparation” for the massacre they committed just weeks later as authorities continue to probe the purpose of the pair’s travel to the terrorism hotbed.

Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid Akram, 50, travelled to the South-East Asian nation – a breeding ground for Islamic extremism and terrorists – on November 1.

Philippine immigration authorities on Tuesday confirmed the pair entered their country together and departed on November 28. Both reported Davao as their final destination.

The Nightly confirmed Sajid travelled on an Indian passport while Naveed used his Australian one.

They returned just a fortnight before allegedly staging Australia’s worst massacre since Port Arthur.

“The reasons why they went to the Philippines, and the purpose of that and where they went when they were there, is under investigation at the moment,” NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said on Tuesday.

“We continue to work through the motive of this tragedy … This is a very complex investigation and it is important that we do it thoroughly.”

Greg Barton, a Professor of Global Islamic Politics at Deakin University, said the pair likely underwent “psychological” preparation for the atrocity they were planning to commit.

“You would think it’s very, very likely that they met with Islamic State operatives and – at least psychologically – it helped seal the deal for them for their next move,” he said.

“The preparation is not necessarily training. It may have involved some technical training, but it was more likely some psychological preparation.

“I would think, at the very least, they were committing themselves to a plan of action, telling other people about it, being encouraged, being assured that they’re on the right track.”

The university’s Chair in Global Islamic Politics said the Philippines trip would have been to “lock them into” their murderous plan.

“If they’re there with like-minded people, they’ve sat together, they’ve prayed together, they’ve been told that they’re on the path of God and they are doing God’s work … locking them into a pretty drastic course of action,” he said.

“That’s one of the things that would have happened in the Philippines and psychologically that helps, because what they did was pretty dramatic.”

The Indonesia-based academic said the pair had committed to “taking lives and very likely losing their own lives”.

“They could have easily backed out of that so anything that sort of keeps them on the hook for their promises is consequential,” he said.

“They were on track and it would have taken something serious to disrupt them and knock them off course.

“Better perimeter security at Bondi Park would have done that.”

The Global Terrorism Index last year ranked the Philippines as the 20th most dangerous country in the world.

Professor Barton said the men might not have attended a terrorist training camp there but simply met with IS operatives in Manila.

“All they needed to do is meet with somebody in a suburban house and have long, deep and meaningful talks, prayers, that sort of consolidate their psychological position and their decision,” he said.

“This could have been at a remote location, say, in western Mindanao, where they might do some weapons training but these two guys were not running through obstacle courses.

“If they were doing any preparation, it was, firstly, psychological, and secondly, maybe some weapons training.”

Professor Barton said it would have been safer for the pair to connect with Islamic state operatives in the Philippines rather than attempting travel to the Middle East.

It also offered them the best opportunity to travel undetected as two male relatives visiting the Philippines would not have necessarily raised red flags.

“The Philippines has great holiday destinations, much like Bali,” Prof Barton said.

“It’s got great beaches, it’s pretty cheap and the food is good so there are all sorts of reasons why you would go on holidays in the Philippines … so it (would not appear) particularly strange.”

On Tuesday, Commissioner Lanyon also confirmed police had located two home-made ISIS flags, alongside IEDs, in Naveed’s vehicle which was parked at the Bondi crime scene.

And a report emerged that police had found a video of the father and son duo posing with weapons and discussing their extremist views inside the Campsie Airbnb they had rented in the days before their killing spree.

Professor Barton said producing visual material like this was “classic Islamic State” and the extremist group’s “modus operandi”.

“Islamic State is not simply motivated by antisemitism and by hatred of people to the extent that they want to kill them, but also by wanting to be seen to be the heroes who are targeting the enemies,” he said.

“If you’re looking for a public site that’s vulnerable, that’s also iconic, this was an easy, soft target.

“As it turns out, that should have been better guarded. It wasn’t. They shouldn’t have access to the pedestrian bridge, but they did.”

Since the shooting it has emerged Naveed was a follower of a radical jihadist sect notorious for indoctrinating young people.

Videos of Naveed proselytising and handing out pamphlets for the Street Dawah Movement in 2019 have also emerged.

“Looking backwards, Naveed was in with the Sydney extremist crowd back in 2019 and that’s all one large social network,” said Prof Barton.

“ASIO looked at him for six months in 2019 and didn’t see him as presenting any immediate danger … and so it was dropped.

“It’s not possible (for ASIO) to look at everyone all the time, so you have to try and figure out where your priorities are, as they’ve got so many other people to follow up.

“The tragedy, in hindsight, is that he was likely radicalised and remained radicalised.”

Police reportedly believe the Akrams had “self-radicalised” but Professor Barton says that “people generally radicalize as part of a social network”.

“The priority is seeing whether these guys acted alone or whether they’d actually been part of a cell,” he said.

“It looks like they acted alone, but that alone acting doesn’t mean that they are complete loners.

“They would have had in their journey of radicalization links with people in Sydney, and now we’ve seen the Philippines, which is the closest place outside Australia where you can associate and engage with these people.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said ASIO will “never be able to be all seeing and all-knowing” and that while the younger Akram associated with people in ASIO’s sights in 2019, he “did not have an ideology or a motivation that matched those other people”.

“You have a very large number of people where you’re looking at anyone who might be associating with people who are already of interest,” Mr Burke said on Tuesday.

“More than half a decade ago, it was not the case that he had the motivation or the ideology where horrifically we saw him end up half a decade later.

“It was never the case that there was an assessment done by ASIO about him having a violent ideology back then.

“Back then he didn’t. In the years that followed, that changed.”

Prof Barton said it was also unusual to see a father and son allegedly carry out an act of terrorism on this scale and unheard of in Australia.

“The father and son clearly become close,” he said.

“Attacks are often just the single lone actor. But if you have a father and son pair like this, that have been through something together, it makes them more lethal.

“Psychologically, it sort of locks you in on the path of action.”

It remains unknown what, if any, weapons training Naveed had received.

“Learning to cycle a bolt action reload is pretty easy,” said Prof Barton.

“Learning to shoot accurately under pressure is a different story.

“So there’ll be a lot of forensic evaluation of who fired the most lethal rounds, how accurate were they, what level of training and skill did that suggest they had? Those are really important things to understand.”

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have pointed to Tehran as a potential primary suspect, according to a report in the US Sun.

Intelligence sources told the media outlet the attack bore the hallmarks of Hezbollah’s external operations unit, Unit 910, and was meticulously planned.

This comes just months after Australia expelled its Iranian ambassador over claims that Tehran had ordered attacks against Jewish targets here last year.

ASIO chief Mike Burgess has previously confirmed links between these alleged crimes and commanders in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Janya Eighani, a managing partner at Lehman Walsh lawyers, told The Nightly the role of the Islamic Republic “cannot and should not” be overlooked in this incident.

“As a major sponsor of terror worldwide, especially against Jewish interests, the Islamic Republic’s role and connection should be looked at closely,” said the Sydney-based lawyer.

“The Islamic Republic, through its long reaching terrorist arm, the IRGC, fights an asymmetric war with Israel.

“They do so by using not their own assets, but through layers of proxies throughout the world … They have increasingly outsourced these terroristic acts to criminal intermediaries.

“So, the ISIS flag found in the car used by the Bondi terrorists should be considered with a healthy dose of scepticism and conclusions not be drawn too speedily.”