Australia Refused Iran’s Previous Attempts to Extradite Sydney Attacker

Iran Sought Monis on Fraud Charges in the Late 1990s.

Details continue to emerge on Man Haron Monis, the Iranian-born attacker who was slain earlier this week after taking hostages in a Sydney, Australia cafe.

Iranian officials say that Monis had been wanted for decades over fraud he committed while the manager of a travel agency, and that he had fled to Australia under a fake name in the late 1990s.

Iran tracked Monis down, and sought to extradite him from Australia, but the Australian government refused when Monis sought “political asylum.” During his time in Australia, he was charged with multiple crimes, including accessory to murder of his ex-wife, but was out on bail.

Monis also faced more than 40 sexual assault charges in Australia on various women, after he declared himself a “healer.” Monis went on to claim himself a Sunni cleric, though he was not.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.