SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday ordered a sweeping investigation into a deadly hostage siege after tough new security laws and the courts failed to stop a convicted felon from walking into a Sydney cafe with a concealed shotgun.
Three people were killed, including hostage-taker Man Haron Monis, when police stormed the cafe early on Tuesday morning to free terrified hostages held at gunpoint for 16 hours. Police are investigating whether the two captives were killed by Monis or died in crossfire. Monis was well known to Australian authorities.
Australia passed sweeping security laws in October aimed at stopping people from becoming radicalised and going to fight in conflicts such as those in Iraq and Syria, where scores of Australians have joined militant groups, as well as preventing attacks at home. Despite the new powers, Abbott said Monis was not on any security watch list and managed to walk undetected into the Lindt Chocolate Cafe with a legally obtained shotgun on a busy workday morning.
Abbott said the national and state governments would conduct an urgent review to identify where the system had failed in order to understand how attacks could be stopped in future.
“We do need to know why the perpetrator of this horrible outrage got permanent residency. We do need to know how he could’ve been on welfare for so many years. We do need to know what this individual was doing with a gun licence,” Abbott said. Reuters
