The alleged Bondi Beach terrorist has sought a strict gag order preventing publication of details about his family, telling a court he fears for their safety.
Naveed Akram, who allegedly opened fire on a crowd of Jewish families at the Chanuka by the Sea festival at Bondi Beach on December 14, 2025, did not appear when his matter was mentioned at Downing Centre Local Court on Monday.
A barrister from his publicly funded legal team instead made a surprise application for a non-publication order covering Akram’s mother, brother and sister, including their names, addresses and workplaces.
The order is to protect their “physical and mental safety”, the court heard.
Prosecutors allege Akram carried out the attack alongside his father, Sajid Akram, who was shot dead by police at the scene.
Fifteen people were killed in the shooting and dozens more were injured in the worst terror attack in Australian history.
Akram lived with his family in Sydney’s west but allegedly stayed with his father at an Airbnb in Campsie in the lead-up to the attack.
Police say the pair had trained with legally obtained firearms at rural properties and that they had recorded videos espousing Islamic State-inspired extremist ideology before the shooting.
Prosecutors allege the father and son acted together in a joint criminal enterprise motivated by Islamic State.
Magistrate Greg Grogin granted the non-publication order on a temporary basis on Monday after a lawyer representing media organisations flagged a likely challenge from newspapers and television networks.
The media are expected to argue, as Grogin himself noted in court, that “the horse has bolted”. Grogin and a media lawyer flagged that Akram’s family members had already been widely identified in earlier reporting and that further suppression could be ineffective.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Akram’s surviving family, rather public attention since the attack has focused on whether either alleged killers had given warning signs before the shooting.
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