Sunday, April 28, 2024

Australian police charge another teenager for Sydney church stabbing

Grim new details are revealed about teen's alleged stabbing attack on Bishop  Mar Mari Emmanuel at Wakeley Christ the Good Shepherd Church - as he faces  court on terror charges from his

Australian police have charged another teenager with a terrorism-related offence in investigations after the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop while he was giving a live streamed sermon in Sydney earlier this month.

The boy, 15, was charged with conspiring to prepare a terrorist act, New South Wales police said, adding that his case would be heard in a children's court.

The attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, injured in the 15 April attack at his church, came only days after a deadly mass stabbing in Bondi.

Gun and knife crime is rare in Sydney, one of the world's safest big cities.

Police on Thursday laid terrorism-related charges against five other teenagers, allegedly associates of a boy, 16, previously charged over the stabbing of Mr Emmanuel.

Mr Emmanuel, a bishop at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley, is a social media star and a fiery critic of homosexuality, Covid vaccinations, Islam and US President Joe Biden's election.

The Assyrian Church, which has its world headquarters in Iraq, is a Christian sect with its historical origins in parts of modern Turkey, Syria and Iran.