New Delhi: Man Haron Monis, the man behind Sydney hostage crisis, was facing 47 charges of sexual assault besides the charge of planning the murder of his ex-wife.
Monis, who was opposed to the deployment of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, was also charged for sending offensive letters to the families of dead Australian troops.
According to police, his original name was Manteghi Boroujerdi and he called himself Sheik Haron. He was born in Iran and was living at Bexley North in south Sydney. He descended to Australia in 1996.
What is interesting is the fact that he was born a Shia Muslim but changed his allegiance to Sunni sect later on.
The Australian Muslim community leaders described him as a free agent acting on his own and had no backing of the community.
The New South Wales police said that 50-year-old Monis was no stranger to them and also to the judiciary.
He came to the attention of the police seven years ago when he penned poisonous letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers.
In 2009, he appeared before a court as a social activist. At that time, he had successfully managed to evade his arrest but was awarded religious punishment of 300 hours.
In November 2013, he was charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife and the mother of two. A month later, Monis was granted bail at Penrith Local Court after noting that the prosecution had ‘a weak case' against him.
Most recently, he was charged with 47 allegations of indecent and sexual assault relating to the time that he allegedly spent as a self-proclaimed ‘spiritual healer', dealing with black magic, in western Sydney more than a decade ago.
He recently likened himself on his own webpage to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, claiming that the recent charges against him have been laid for ‘political reasons'.
