Australia 'refused to extradite siege gunman'
Australian authorities reportedly denied a request by Iran to have the Sydney siege gunman extradited to his homeland more than a decade ago.
Iranian authorities have said they discussed the mental state of Man Haron Monis with Australian officials several times before the deadly siege in Martin Place.
The 50-year-old Iranian refugee and two of his hostages died at the end of a 16-hour siege in a cafe in Sydney's CBD early on Tuesday morning.
According to Iran’s chief of police, General Ismail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, Monis had committed a number of ‘violent’ and fraud-related offences before he fled the country in 1996.
Monis had reportedly gone by the name Mohammad Hassan Manteqi before he came to Australia.
“It lasted four years to collect evidence on Manteqi’s identification documents and we reported this to the Australian police but since Australia has no extradition treaty with Iran, they didn’t extradite him to Iran,” Mehr News Agency reports General Ahmadi-Moghaddam as saying.
Since the siege, the family of Man Haron Monis’ slain ex-wife Noleen Pal has questioned why he was not already in prison in Australia.
They took to Facebook yesterday saying authorities ‘should have let him rot in the jail’.
Monis and his then-partner had been charged over the death of Ms Pal - where she was stabbed and set alight - but the pair was bailed in December last year.
While in Australia, Monis had also been charged for writing letters harassing the families of fallen soldiers, along with counts of sexual intercourse without consent and indecent assault.
Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said Iranian and Australian authorities were well aware of the man's condition.
"The psychological conditions of the person who took refuge in Australia two decades ago had been discussed several times with the Australian officials," she said.
"The situation of the hostage taker had been completely clear to the Australian related officials."
Ms Afkham said in a statement her government condemned the hostage taking.
"Resorting to inhuman methods and creating fear, under the name of religion, is by no way acceptable in any circumstances," she said.
