The World Briefly
April 25, 2024The Hunt Is On
Australia
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Australian authorities on Wednesday arrested seven teenagers who are allegedly part of a terror network, a week after a 16-year-old stabbed an Assyrian Orthodox bishop during a live-streamed church sermon in Sydney, Al Jazeera reported.
The arrests were part of a series of anti-terror raids involving more than 400 police officers executing search warrants at a number of Sydney properties overnight.
Police described the suspects, aged 15 to 17, as an immediate threat, with concerns that they were plotting further attacks. They added that the detainees adhered to “a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology” and posed an “unacceptable risk” to the public.
Authorities said the arrested individuals were linked to a network that also included the teenage attacker who stabbed and injured a bishop and another priest last week.
The attacker was later charged with committing a terrorist act, with police saying his actions were fueled by “religiously motivated extremism.”
Officials said investigators did not find any evidence that the network had any specific targets or timing of any intended “violent acts.” Still, they claimed that Wednesday’s arrests were spurred by concerns that the network could be plotting more attacks.
The detentions came amid a global battle over the dissemination of graphic video footage of the church stabbing on social media platforms, according to the Voice of America.
After the attack, the Australian eSafety commissioner issued orders to tech giants Meta and X – formerly Twitter – to remove the footage, which was classified as depicting gratuitous violence.
While Meta complied, X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, contested the directive, countering that it exceeded Australian law and posed threats to free speech globally.
The standoff intensified after an Australian court ordered X to temporarily hide the videos.
Musk’s stance sparked strong reactions from Australian politicians, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese admonishing him as an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law.”
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