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Australian Police Charge Five Teenagers For Stabbing Bishop During Sermon

Australian Police Charge Five Teenagers For Stabbing Bishop During Sermon
April 25, 2024

Police said they were associates of a 16-year-old boy previously charged in the knifing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was injured in the attack on April 15 at his church.

Australian police say five teenagers have been charged with terrorism-related offences following the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop while he was giving a live-streamed sermon earlier this month.

According to Reuters, the five boys who were due in children's court on Thursday were arrested on Wednesday in the Sydney region.

Police said they were associates of a 16-year-old boy previously charged in the knifing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was injured in the attack on April 15 at his church.

The latest charges include possessing violent extremist material, conspiring to prepare for a terrorist act and carrying a knife in public, New South Wales police said.

Emmanuel, bishop at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the Sydney suburb of Wakefield, is a social media star with followers around the world and a fiery critic of homosexuality, COVID vaccinations, Islam and U.S. 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.

The attack on Emmanuel 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.

 

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International