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Gunman had a long history of criminal charges

SYDNEY — The man behind the shocking siege in a Sydney cafe was Man Haron Monis, a notorious 49-year-old self-proclaimed sheikh who claimed to practise black magic and was well known for multiple crimes, including sending offensive letters to grieving families of dead Australian soldiers and allegedly murdering his ex-wife.

Man Haron Monis first made national headlines after he caused widespread outrage by sending insulting letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Photo: AP

Man Haron Monis first made national headlines after he caused widespread outrage by sending insulting letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Photo: AP

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SYDNEY — The man behind the shocking siege in a Sydney cafe was Man Haron Monis, a notorious 49-year-old self-proclaimed sheikh who claimed to practise black magic and was well known for multiple crimes, including sending offensive letters to grieving families of dead Australian soldiers and allegedly murdering his ex-wife.

The police apparently identified Monis as the gunman within hours of the siege: His appearance closely resembled the figure seen lurking behind the windows of the cafe. Australian media reported that the gunman was killed in the raid.

Dubbed the “hate sheikh”, Monis, who was reportedly born in Iran and later granted asylum in Australia, first made national headlines after he caused widespread outrage by sending insulting letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan as well as the mother of an Australian official killed in a bombing in Indonesia.

He was last year sentenced to 300 hours of community service after pleading guilty to sending the “grossly offensive” letters between 2007 and 2009.

His wife, Amirah Droudis, 34, also pleaded guilty to participating in the abusive letter-writing. She had reportedly once approached the family of a soldier at his funeral.

During court hearings for the letter-writing, Monis claimed he was a peace activist and chained himself to the court, waving a small Australian flag.

Monis repeatedly refused to apologise and even brought an appeal to the High Court, claiming that the letters were purely political and that he should be protected under the right to freedom of speech. The court dismissed the claim last Friday.

Monis, who sometimes went by the names Sheikh Haron or Mohammad Hassan Manteghi, was also charged in November last year with being an accessory to the murder of Noleen Hayson Pal, 30, his ex-wife and mother of two. She was stabbed multiple times and set alight before being found in an apartment stairwell in April last year. She had apparently met Monis by following newspaper advertisements in which he claimed to be a spiritual healer.

Monis had claimed that he was framed by the Iranian secret police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Australia’s domestic spy agency.

Prosecutors said he had constructed an elaborate alibi, including deliberately filming a clock while asking for the time at a swimming pool before the murder and later faking a car crash outside a police station.

He and his wife were separated and in a bitter custody dispute. His current wife, Droudis, was also accused of the murder.

Monis was charged in April this year with the sexual assault of a woman then aged 27 in Sydney in 2002. She met him after seeing his newspaper advertisement for “spiritual consultation” and he claimed to be an expert in astrology, numerology and black magic. He has been charged with an additional 40 indecent and sexual assault offences.

His next appearance in court on the sexual assault charges was due in February next year.

His former Facebook page, pulled down yesterday night as the siege continued, had 14,725 “likes” when it was shut down. AGENCIES

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this story, the headline "Gunman had a long history of convictions" was inaccurate. This has since been corrected. We apologise for the error.

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