The alleged Bondi attacker who survived a shootout with police has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act in what investigators allege may have been “inspired by Isis”.
New South Wales police charged Naveed Akram, 24, on Wednesday, after he was arrested at the scene and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries on Sunday night.
Akram was charged after waking from a coma on Tuesday, with the matter heard in court on Wednesday afternoon.
He did not apply for bail, and will next face court again on 8 April.
As an addition:
‘Best of our country’: Australian PM visits Bondi hero in hospital
Australia’s Prime Minister has visited Bondi hero Ahmed al Ahmed in hospital, after the bystander tried to disarm one of the gunmen in the nation’s deadliest gun attack since 1996.
“Your heart is strong”, PM Anthony Albanese told the father-of-two, later calling him “the best of our country”.
The fruit shop owner, who was born and raised in Syria, was shot several times in the shoulder after tackling one of the alleged gunmen. Albanese said Mr Ahmed would “undergo further surgery” on Wednesday.