AhlulBayt News Agency

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Tuesday

16 December 2014

6:31:57 AM
658587

Iran had warned Australia of the hostage-taker Haron Monis' mental condition'

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham strongly condemned hostage taking in Sydney and asserted that inhumane methods and bullying acts in the name of Islam are not acceptable under any circumstances.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham strongly condemned hostage taking in Sydney and asserted that inhumane methods and bullying acts in the name of Islam are not acceptable under any circumstances.

Afkham expressed wonder over inaccurate, selected news about the Iranian refugee and highlighted that “the mental conditions of the person who immigrated to and took refuge in Australia two decades ago was repeatedly reported to the Australian officials and they were totally aware of his conditions.”

Three people died in the hostage drama yesterday in a Sydney cafe after security forces stormed the building.

Heavy gunfire and blasts from stun grenades filled the air shortly after 2 am local time at the Lindt cafe in central Sydney, bringing to an end a siege that had lasted more than 16 hours. The 50-year-old hostage-taker was among the dead; while two hostages - a 38-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man, were the other two deceased.

On a website, now suspended, he describes himself as a convert to Sunni Islam. In his statement he expresses "allegiance" to ISIL and its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, calling the ISIL Caliph as his "Imam".

Also in his statement, the formerly Shiite Muslim underlines that he has converted to Sunni Islam, stressing that Shiites are blasphemous people.

He also underscores that the war in Iraq is not a sectarian strife, but a war between the Muslims (i.e. ISIL) and the hypocrites.

The self-styled cleric was described by his former lawyer as an isolated figure.

One of his demands was to have a flag of the ISIL, the Sunni-Takfiri militant group which recently seized territory in Syria and Iraq, to be delivered to the cafe to replace the Al-Nusra flag that he had taken to the cafe with himself.




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