One of two men suspected of carrying out Australia's deadliest mass shooting in three decades has been formally charged with 59 offences, including a terror charge, police said on Wednesday.
Naveed Akram, 25, was shot by the police during the Bondi Beach massacre and remains in a Sydney hospital under heavy police guard.
The alleged father-and-son perpetrators opened fire on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's famed Bondi Beach on December 14, in an attack that shook the nation and intensified fears of rising antisemitism and violent extremism.
The 15 victims ranged from a rabbi who was a father of five, to a Holocaust survivor, to a 10-year-old girl named Matilda Britvan, according to interviews, officials and media reports. Two police officers remained in critical but stable condition in the hospital, New South Wales police said.
Naveed's father, Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene, while the former emerged from a coma on Wednesday.
The men accused of carrying out Sunday's attack had travelled to the southern Philippines, a region long plagued by militancy, weeks before the shooting that Australian police said appeared to be inspired by Daesh, also known as IS.
It may be noted that the Indian government officials on Tuesday confirmed that Sajid hailed was from Hyderabad, India, after days of uncertain reports regarding the identity of the alleged gunman, who is now dead.
The Indian authorities shared the details of Sajid after conducting a background verification.
As per details, Sajid was a resident of Tolichowki, Hyderabad, who moved to Australia in 1998 on a student visa and had returned to India only “two-three occasions" since relocating. He last visited India in 2022.
Meanwhile, Naveed, the second attacker, was born in Australia in 2001 and holds Australian citizenship.
The Philippines said Wednesday there was no evidence that the country was being used for terrorist training, a day after it was revealed the men behind the mass shooting had spent November on a southern island known for terrorist insurgencies.
"(President Ferdinand Marcos) strongly rejects the sweeping statement and the misleading characterisation of the Philippines as the Daesh training hotspot," presidential spokeswoman Claire Castro said at a press briefing,
"No evidence has been presented to support claims that the country was used for terrorist training," she added, reading from a National Security Council statement.
"There is no validated report or confirmation that individuals involved in the Bondi Beach incident received any form of training in the Philippines."
Australian authorities are investigating whether the two men met with extremists during the trip.
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.
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."
