Bondi Beach shooter renewed gun license even after son was probed for ISIS terror links, police say
Sajid Akram,50, was granted a firearms licence in 2020, even though his son, Naveed Akram, 24, had already been on the radar of Australian intelligence for connections to a convicted ISIS terrorist.
The permit allowed Sajid to legally acquire and register the six weapons that were found at the scene of the Bondi Beach slaying, an attack that claimed 15 lives during a Hanukkah celebration.
Naveed’s name had entered the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s watch list a year earlier, after investigators linked him to the failed terrorist Isaac El Matari. In 2019 the authorities determined that Naveed did not pose an immediate threat to the country, a finding later used in the decision to approve Sajid’s licence in 2023.
The licence was, in fact, already in force since 2015, but lapsed when Sajid failed to provide a required photograph. It was later reactivated, a lapse that has sparked criticism of both state and federal officials for permitting the father‑son pair to amass a cache of guns despite the son’s intelligence background and Australia’s already stringent gun control laws.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns announced that Parliament would convene next week to discuss a new safety package. One key proposal is to give police full access to criminal intelligence when evaluating whether to grant or renew a gun licence—a move that will undoubtedly generate debate.
Lawmakers are also exploring a cap on the number of firearms a person may own and the possibility of banning non‑citizens from purchasing or owning guns.
Opposition figures argue that the focus on gun reform detracts from the broader national conversation about the spike in global antisemitism following the Oct. 7 attack in Israel.
Akram was killed in a police shootout that followed the massacre. Naveed survived a brief coma but faces 59 charges, including murder and terrorism.
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