On December 15, 2014, a gunman named Haron Monis carried a shotgun and also warned a bomb in his backpack, he held 17 hostages including the staffs and customers at Lindt Cafe, Martin Place, N.S.W. After 16 hours sieged, the hostages freed but Lindt Cafe’s manager Tori Johnson and a customer Katrina Dawson killed plus 3 hostages and 1 police injured. The terror plot ended, however, the Australian people and victims question the slow reaction of the police force and other reasons.
The aftermath of Lindt Cafe terror has been investigated, the authority interviewed 123 witnesses and after two and half years, the coroner has released the inquiry. The main report said that police didn’t act properly and took so long. Mostly the coroner claimed police was responsible for the fatal tragedy, but the radical terror doesn’t clarify.
Terrorist Haron Monis, an Iranian who arrived in Australia in 1996 with one-month business visa then applied for a protection visa when his business visa expired, and was granted a bridging visa while the protection visa application was assessed. In 2001 Australia granted his request for political asylum and 2004 Australian government granted him citizenship. He self-proclaimed the Sheikh, a Muslim cleric’s title. Haron Monis used the Sheikh for the hatred propaganda, he exploited free speech to insult families of Australian soldiers fighting in Afghanistan by sending letters to them in which he called the soldiers murderers, one of the letters compared a dead soldier to a pig and called his body “contaminated”. He also protested many times at the public places in Sydney. However, Haron Monis was investigated of 40 sexual charges and one accessory murder.
Monis had been granted conditional bail because the magistrate said “there were significant flaws in the Crown’s case”, his lawyer applied for the bail and N.S.W prosecutor granted it, and hence he was free and raised the terror at Lindt Cafe. According to the law, Haron Monis had to be detained and waiting for the court appearance while he was on serious charges, but the magistrate didn’t apply the law.
The Lindt Cafe’s terror becomes the grave concern of Australian legal system, the constitution grants so much power for the judge and high benefit. Some judges think themselves as the most powerful authorities in the country and become arrogant. Moreover, a judge has no responsibility after wrong sentenced, the victims spent many years in prison and when the cases discovered, taxpayers compensate victims, not the judges.
The legal system in Australia being rotten and having a loophole, so Justice Department needs to overhaul the judges and lawyers. Actually, a judge who granted the bail for terrorist Haron Monis is the prime investigating subject.