This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-30510201

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Sydney cafe siege probe 'well advanced' Sydney cafe siege: Probe into gunman's asylum and gun licence
(about 3 hours later)
The investigation into the police raid which ended a 16-hour siege in a Sydney cafe is well advanced, the head of the New South Wales police has said. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced a review into the background and security checks on the man behind the Sydney cafe siege.
Commissioner Andrew Scipione said he believed officers made "absolutely the right call" in storming the cafe. Mr Abbott said questions must be asked about how Man Haron Monis was not on a watch list despite a history of violence and mental instability.
Two hostages and gunman Man Haron Monis were killed during the raid, but police are not yet saying who shot them. Monis died along with two hostages on Tuesday when police raided the cafe he had taken over in the centre of Sydney.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has also promised to investigate why Monis was not under surveillance. He was facing charges of sexual assault and being an accessory to murder.
Monis, an Iranian who was granted asylum in Australia, had been charged with being an accessory to his wife's murder and with dozens of sexual assault offences. Monis had a history of religiously motivated activism and called himself a cleric, but officials have said there is as yet no evidence his actions were linked to international Islamist militant networks, despite his use of a flag with the Islamic creed on it during the siege.
The day before he took 17 people hostage in the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney's Martin Place, he had been refused the right to appeal against a conviction for sending "grossly offensive" letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said earlier that the separate investigation into the actions of police officers was well advanced, but that he believed officers made "absolutely the right call" in storming the Lindt Chocolat cafe in Martin Place.
'Long record of violence'
Monis was from Iran and was granted asylum in Australia in 1996.
The day before the siege, he had been refused the right to appeal against a conviction for sending "grossly offensive" letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers.
Iran also says he was wanted there over fraud allegations, but that Australia had refused to extradite him 14 years ago.Iran also says he was wanted there over fraud allegations, but that Australia had refused to extradite him 14 years ago.
Cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34, and Katrina Dawson, a 38-year old lawyer, died along with Monis when commandos stormed the cafe in the early hours of Tuesday. Speaking in Canberra on Wednesday, Mr Abbott said he had great confidence in the police and security services, but that he wanted "answers to some obvious questions that have been raised in the wake of this terrorist incident".
He said the authorities needed to know how Monis had acquired permanent residency in Australia, how he lived on welfare for many years while apparently physically able, how he obtained a gun licence and "how someone with such a long record of violence and instability was out on bail".
How the 16-hour Sydney siege unfoldedHow the 16-hour Sydney siege unfolded
How Sydney cafe siege unfoldedHow Sydney cafe siege unfolded
Man Haron Monis: 'Damaged' and 'unstable'Man Haron Monis: 'Damaged' and 'unstable'
Thousands of people have been paying tribute to the victims at the Martin Place memorial, and signing books of condolence around the country. Mr Abbott said Monis had been on a security watch list until 2009.
Speaking in Martin Place on Wednesday, Mr Scipione said the investigation into the actions of the police was "well advanced", but that some 70 interviews were still to take place. "I don't know why he dropped off the watch list in those days and that's one of the reasons we need this inquiry," he said.
"My own personal view is that if they [commandos] hadn't have moved when they moved, this could have been much much worse," he said. Mr Abbott added that while Monis had clearly sought to "clothe himself in the symbolism and ideology" of militant Islamist group Islamic State, it was not yet known how much contact he had had with terror networks.
"I don't think this could have been done any better anywhere else in the world by any other group," he said, and dismissed suggestions in the media that the military should have been called in. The review will report by January next year, said a press release.
Thousands of people have been paying tribute to the killed hostages, Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson, at a memorial in Martin Place, and signing books of condolence around the country.
Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Commissioner Scipione said some 70 interviews with witnesses were still to take place, but that he believed the outcome could have been "much, much worse" if police had not moved in when they did.
When asked whether Monis should have been on a terror watch list, Mr Scipione said it was important to remember that none of the charges he faced related to political violence.When asked whether Monis should have been on a terror watch list, Mr Scipione said it was important to remember that none of the charges he faced related to political violence.
"Clearly we work on a priority-based system so if someone is on a national security watch list we watch them but on this particular occasion he was not.""Clearly we work on a priority-based system so if someone is on a national security watch list we watch them but on this particular occasion he was not."
But he said police were "concerned that this man got bail from the very beginning" and had asked the court to refuse the request.But he said police were "concerned that this man got bail from the very beginning" and had asked the court to refuse the request.
Monis has a history of religiously motivated activism and called himself a cleric, but officials say there is as yet no evidence his actions were linked to international Islamist militant networks, despite his use of a flag with the Islamic creed on it during the siege.
People who knew him have said he appeared mentally unstable.
But Mr Abbott told ABC Radio on Wednesday: "We want to know why he wasn't being monitored, given his history of violence, his history of mental instability, and his history of infatuation with extremism."
"The system did not adequately deal with this individual. There's no doubt about that, and this is why we've got to constantly learn the lessons of everything that happens."