Lawyer and cafe manager killed in Sydney hostage siege hailed as heroes; why wasn't suspect in jail?
A lawyer was killed early Tuesday after being held hostage along with 16 other people in a cafe in Sydney for most of the day Monday by a self-described Muslim cleric, and she is being hailed as a hero.
However, as Prime Minister Tony Abbott paid tribute to barrister Katrina Dawson, 38, and Lindt Chocolat Cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34, who was also killed there, Abbott questioned why suspect Man Haron Monis wasn’t jailed prior to the attack, according to the Guardian.
Described in news reports as a known extremist who was granted asylum as an Iranian refugee in 1996, the 50-year-old Monis faced multiple criminal charges, including as an alleged accessory to his ex-wife’s death by stabbing and burning. But he had been released on bail. He was fatally shot as police stormed the cafe, and four other people were injured.
The New York Times (reg. req.) provides more details about Monis, who was described by his former criminal defense lawyer, Manny Conditsis, as being “on the fringe of the fringe.”
Another Guardian article and stories by NBC News and the Sydney Morning Herald provide additional details about the standoff, which put much of the central city on lockdown Monday.
Dawson was having coffee at the cafe near her law office Monday with a friend, Julie Taylor, who is also a barrister employed in the same Eight Selborne Chambers law firm as Dawson. Their day drastically changed when fellow patron Monis reportedly stood up with a shotgun and started making demands.
Although exactly what happened over the next 17 hours is still unclear, reports have said Dawson shielded Taylor, who is pregnant, from being shot, and sources have said that Johnson tried to grab the gun from Monis as he was falling asleep, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and CBS News. Police stormed the cafe after hearing gunfire inside.
“Apparently seeing an opportunity, Tori grabbed the gun. Tragically, it went off, killing him. But it triggered the response of police and eventual freedom for most of the hostages,” said Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher at a Tuesday memorial service. “Reports have also emerged that Katrina Dawson was shielding her pregnant friend from gunfire. These heroes were willing to lay down their lives so others might live.”
Taylor escaped with two other hostages about 15 minutes before the siege ended. Meanwhile, she had been selected by Monis to appear in a YouTube video, where she read a list of demands made to Abbott by the suspect, the Daily Mail and Telegraph report.
Among them, “he wants the politicians to announce the truth—that this is an attack by Islamic State on Australia,” said Taylor as she stood in front of a black-and-white Shahada flag held by another hostage. “And if that is done two of us will be allowed to go.”
A mother of three, Dawson was married to partner Paul Smith of King & Wood Mallesons and was the brother of media law barrister Sandy Dawson, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The New South Wales Bar Association said a third barrister was also among the hostages at the cafe.
Abbott questioned why the cleric was not on his country’s terror watch list and why he was released on bail after being charged with the attempted murder of his wife, according to The Age and BBC News.
“How can someone who has had such a long and chequered history not be on the appropriate watch lists, and how can someone like that be entirely at large in the community?” Abbott said. “These are questions that we need to look at carefully and calmly and methodically, to learn the right lessons, and to act upon them. That’s what we’ll be doing in the days and weeks ahead.”
Related coverage:
Time: “Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Shahada in Sydney Reminds Us That Political Islam Is Deadly”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Dozens of shots fired in Canada’s parliament building; Soldier killed at nearby war memorial”
National Post: “Sydney siege draws on killings in Canada: ‘One terrorist attack galvanizes others’”
