Australian police detained teenagers

Krissy Barrett and David Hudson press conference on the action on April 24, 2024 – Photo: Dan Himbrechts / AAP / Reuters

As part of a comprehensive operation, the authorities conducted house searches in Sydney on Wednesday in connection with the knife attack at a church in the Australian capital on April 15, the federal and New South Wales state police and the joint counter-terrorism group of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization reported.

According to the news of MTI, David Hudson, the deputy chief of police of New South Wales, said that the police detained 7 teenagers in the action which took place with the participation of 400 police officers, during which 13 properties were searched.

All of the youths, aged between 15 and 17, who were now arrested, belonged to a “religiously motivated, violent and extremist ideology” network, which also included the alleged perpetrator of the April 15 church attack. After the operation, five more teenagers produced were questioned by the New South Wales Crime Commission, which specializes in crimes committed by the counter-terrorism group and extremists, as well as organized crime.

At the same time, Krissy Barrett, deputy head of the Australian Federal Police, said that during the house searches, the investigators did not find any evidence of a planned act of violence against specific targets. Federal Police Chief Reece Kershaw previously said that a joint operation was launched to prevent further planned acts of terrorism and that “there is currently no threat to public safety”.

Last Friday, the prosecutor’s office brought charges against the 16-year-old suspect of the attack on the Assyrian Christian church called Christ The Good Shepherd Church on April 15, which was classified as a terrorist act by the police.

According to witnesses, the teenager spoke in Arabic about insulting the Prophet Muhammad after repeatedly stabbing Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and Reverend Isaac Royel with a knife during the live, online service.

Just two days before the church attack, a man also killed six people and wounded eight others with a knife at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center in Sydney’s trendy eastern suburbs. In this case, however, the authorities ruled out a terrorist act, as the perpetrator specifically targeted women.