Latest news with #firebombing
ABC News
21 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Victoria Police asked for tougher bail laws for arsonists, FOI documents show
The Victorian government has mostly sat on advice from police to make it tougher for accused arsonists to be released on bail amid Melbourne's ongoing tobacco wars, according to secret briefing notes. Documents obtained by the ABC through Freedom of Information laws reveal that earlier this year, the Allan government was asked to tighten bail rules to help Victoria Police directly target players allegedly responsible for scores of firebombings. But in the four months since the government received the advice, it ignored the majority of the police requests and removed the presumption of bail for only one arson-related offence, which requires a person's life to be endangered. That change is unlikely to have an impact on the majority of tobacco-related firebombings, which typically occur in the dead of night at empty shops. It comes as newly released figures from police revealed there have been eight tobacco-related arsons since the government's bail changes came into effect in March, including the firebombing of a victim's home that was so serious they were put into witness protection. Since then, police have arrested 23 people and charged six offenders with arson but four were granted bail — two by the courts and the other two by police. In a briefing note from February, Victoria Police urged the police minister to reclassify five serious arson-related offences in the Bail Act which would remove the presumption of bail. Those offences were: The changes would have forced alleged firebombers charged with serious arson offences to show a "compelling reason" for why they should be granted bail, whereas at the moment the courts presume they are entitled to bail. But despite agreeing to advocate for the changes months ago, the government removed the presumption of bail solely for criminal damage by fire with the intent to endanger life. A Victorian government spokeswoman defended the decision and said it was acting to "smoke out organised crime and crack down on the illicit tobacco trade". "We have listened to police and have already changed the Bail Act by elevating serious arson offences to Schedule 2, meaning anyone charged will be subject to a tougher bail test under our new laws," the government spokeswoman said. A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the force regularly gave advice to the government. "It is ultimately a matter for government on whether they take that advice and any queries relating to legislation should be directed to them," she said. Middle Eastern crime gangs have been behind 140 firebombings since the tobacco wars began in March 2023 as warring factions tried to seize control of Melbourne's illicit tobacco and vape market. In February this year one of the city's most notorious underworld figures, Sam Abdulrahim, was gunned down in an apartment block car park after a contract was put out on his life. Victoria Police has previously said it believed Kazem Hamad, a sworn enemy of Abdulrahim, is a key player in the tobacco wars who has orchestrated firebombings on his rivals or shop owners who refuse to pay exorbitant extortion fees. Hamad was deported to Iraq after serving eight years behind bars for drug trafficking. The tit-for-tat firebombings have dominated headlines, sucked up police resources and put pressure on the Victorian government to try and stem the tide of violent attacks. It prompted Victoria Police to make the bail recommendations which the force said constituted a "legislative gap". There is currently just one fire-related crime considered serious enough not to warrant the presumption of bail — arson causing death. "This results in offenders of other serious arson offences … not being required to show a compelling reason for why they should be granted bail," Victoria Police said in the secret briefing documents. "Victoria Police advises … it has also witnessed a continuing cycle of re-offending due to the time taken for matters to be brought before the courts and the high likelihood for suspects to receive bail following arson charges," the force said. According to police, there have been at least three occasions where alleged offenders have received bail after firebombing tobacco shops, among them a mid-level organised crime figure. In the documents released to the ABC police allege the man, who is accused of extortion, arson and blackmail, was bailed "despite evidence provided to the court which negated a defence to the charges and despite false assurances". The force said the changes would have a "preventative and deterrent" effect. "Victoria Police proposes these five additional offences be included … as a practical solution to the current issue of serious arson offenders receiving a presumption of bail regardless of their risk to the community," the force said. The force's concerns were noted and agreed to by Police Minister Anthony Carbines but were missing when the Victorian government overhauled the Bail Act after facing mounting pressure to address rising crime rates. The government's changes reclassified home invasions and carjackings as more serious offences and included tougher bail tests for serious child and adult offenders who commit a crime while already on bail for other offences.
The Australian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Australian
Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing charge laid against 20yo man
A man has been charged for his alleged role in the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne's east. The 20-year-old was arrested on Wednesday in Williamstown and charged with stealing a blue VW Golf that was used in the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue. The operation was undertaken by the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT), which includes officers from Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, and ASIO. The taskforce previously said the attack was likely politically motivated. The man allegedly stole the 'communal crime car' used in the firebombing. Picture: NewsWire Handout/ Vic Police That is still the position of the JCTT and the investigation is still into alleged terrorism. The man was not charged for the actual arson attack, and no one has been charged for that offence yet. The investigation is ongoing into the Adass Israel Synagogue fire, which police said was a significant priority for them with 'significant resources across all agencies' being used. Following the arrest of the 20-year-old man, police seized items at a Melton South home that will be further investigated. The 20-year-old was arrested in Williamstown. Picture: NewsWire Handout/ Vic Police The man was granted strict conditional bail to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday, October 3, 2025. Police allege the man stole the car in Melton on November 29, 2024, after which it was used in a series of arson attacks, including at the Lux Nightclub in South Yarra and an arson and shooting attack in Bundoora. Police previously alleged that it was a 'communal crime car'. Victoria Police do not consider the Lux and Bundoora fires to be politically motivated. The synagogue attack shattered the local community who started a crowd-funding campaign to help rebuild it. The government has committed $30m to the restoration of the Ripponlea building and funded increased security upgrades. Read related topics: Israel Brendan Kearns Cadet Journalist Brendan Kearns is a cadet journalist with News Corp Australia. He has written for The Australian, the Herald Sun, the Geelong Advertiser, CHOICE, Cosmos, and The Citizen. He won Democracy's Watchdogs' Student Award for Investigative Journalism 2024 and hosted the third season of award-winning podcast Uncurated. He studied as Master of Journalism at The University of Melbourne, before that he worked as a video producer and disability worker. @brendandkearns Brendan Kearns
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Man charged over car theft tied to synagogue attack
A man has been charged with the theft of a car linked to several high profile violent incidents, including the alleged "politically motivated" firebombing of a synagogue. Detectives arrested a 20-year-old man before executing a search warrant at a home in Melbourne's west on Wednesday, where they seized multiple items. The man has been charged with theft of a motor vehicle, along with failing to provide access to applications on his phone. Police allege the man stole a blue 2020-model VW Golf sedan at Melton on November 29, 2024. The stolen car was used in other offences, including the Lux nightclub arson at South Yarra in November, as well as an arson and shooting at Bundoora. Investigators do not consider the Bundoora and South Yarra incidents politically motivated attacks. Police believe the car was used in the Adass Israel Synagogue arson attack on December 6. Two of the synagogue's three buildings in Ripponlea, in Melbourne's southeast, were gutted in the fire. Inside at the time were two congregants preparing for morning prayers who escaped, with one suffering minor injuries. Photos and CCTV footage released by counter-terror police in May showed a Golf sedan repeatedly passing the synagogue before parking directly outside its main entrance. Three people donning hoodies and masks get out of the vehicle and use an axe to damage the entrance of the building. No one has been charged with carrying out the firebombing and the accused car thief is the first person to be accused of any offence linked to the attack. Terrorism investigators continue to investigate the attack as a priority. Investigators have combed through CCTV from more than 1400 locations and believe multiple offenders are directly and indirectly linked to the synagogue arson, police confirmed in May. Detectives have been investigating several alleged acts of anti-Semitism across Melbourne in July, including an incident at the Israeli restaurant Miznon and the alleged arson attack on a East Melbourne Synagogue on July 5. A group of worshippers was forced to flee the synagogue when a man allegedly set the building on fire during weekly services. Police have since charged a 34-year-old man with multiple offences including reckless conduct endangering life and criminal damage by fire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the "reprehensible anti-Semitic attacks" on both the Melbourne synagogue and the restaurant. Police are continuing to work with people from the synagogue and other representatives from the Jewish community to ensure they have appropriate supports. The 20-year-old charged with car theft was granted strict conditional bail to appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on October 3.
RNZ News
6 days ago
- RNZ News
Man charged with theft of car linked to Adass Israel Jewish synagogue firebombing in Australia
A Williamstown man is arrested by members of the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team. Photo: Australian Federal Police via ABC News The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team has charged a man over the theft of a car connected to the Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing in Melbourne in December 2024. Early morning worshippers told police they saw masked men throw fuel inside the Ripponlea synagogue around 4am on December 6. The fire quickly spread, forcing several people to flee to safety through a back door. One person was said to have been burned. In May, the Joint Counter Terrorism Team released CCTV footage of three people getting out of an alleged stolen VW Golf sedan, with two seen pouring the contents of several jerry cans into the synagogue and setting the liquid alight. The car - which investigators at the time came to refer to as an alleged "communal crime car" - then drove off towards the western suburbs. Police said the car had cloned number plates. A 20-year-old Williamstown man was arrested on Wednesday and charged with theft of a motor vehicle. He appeared in court yesterday and was granted bail to reappear in October. A Melton South home was also raided. - ABC
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘Utterly foolish': 12 hours before World War II ended, the US firebombed this Japanese city
Eighty years later, the scars of the last American firebombing of a Japanese city remain — on the skin of a man who still lives mere yards from where hundreds died, on the surface of a statue of a revered Buddhist monk, and in the minds of those whose city was turned to ash in a matter of hours. Almost 90 US B-29 bombers dropped about 6,000 tons of jellied gasoline — napalm — on Kumagaya, Japan, on the night of August 14-15, 1945. The resulting fires, burning at 800 to 1,200 degrees Celsius, killed at least 260 people, injured 3,000 and left, by some estimates, almost 75% of the city of 47,000 in ruins. The last in the string of US warplanes that created that firestorm left the skies over Kumagaya less than 12 hours before the voice of Emperor Hirohito would be broadcast announcing Japan's unconditional surrender. Current Kumagaya resident Kazumi Yoneda came into the world that day, not long before the US bombers struck. In 2020, she published a book of poetry, 'The Day I Was Born,' and she shared it with CNN. One read: 'The day I was born, flames devoured the city.'My mother gave birth,'held me close –'And stood among'The ruins of her home.'Her body gave no mother's milk'She held her ever-crying child in her arms.' 'No one wants to die in the closing moments of a war.' Those words came from New York Herald Tribune correspondent Homer Bigart, who was on board one of the last B-29s to strike Kumagaya. He flew from the Pacific island of Guam in the Superfortress City of Saco, part of the 314th Bombardment Wing. It was a mission US commanders were at pains to justify to the aircrews, Bigart wrote. The second atomic bomb attack, on Nagasaki, had occurred just five days earlier, killing almost 46,000 people. Three days before that, on August 6, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima killed an estimated 70,000 people instantly. Japan's capitulation was expected, and US bomber crews hadn't flown for five days — 'an uneasy truce,' Bigart wrote. And now they were being asked to risk their lives hitting what Bigart called 'a pathetically small city of little obvious importance.' But in a pre-mission briefing, commanders said Kumagaya had an important rail yard and shops that made airplane parts, legitimate military targets. 'This should be the final knockout blow of the war,' commanding officer Col. Carl Storrie told the fliers, according to Bigart. 'Put your bombs on the target so that tomorrow the world will have peace.' And in case the surrender was announced during their flight to Kumagaya, the B-29 crews were told to monitor their radios for the word 'Utah.' That would mean Japan's surrender was official and they could turn back to Guam. It never came, and late on the night of August 14, 1945, the last fire raid of World War II began. Kazue Hojo was 7 years old when Kumagaya burned. She lived in a house with her family, having a reasonably happy childhood despite the hardships brought on by the fact that her country had, with its invasion of China, been at war in Asia for her entire life. On a June afternoon, she shared photos of that childhood with CNN. As we sit down in the house of Shoichi Yoshida, non-executive administrative director of a civic group that keeps memories of the fire raid alive, it's the first time she has spoken with media about her recollections of that fiery night. As the bombing began, she fled with her mother, her 5-year-old sister and 2-month-old brother to a railway embankment, dodging the incendiary bombs that 'came down like rain,' she said. A piece of shrapnel struck her mother in the neck. At the same time, her brother, whom her mother carried on her back, suffered a serious burn on his forehead. Both of them were left with scars they would bear the rest of their lives, she said. And fires raged. 'It was bright like daytime,' Hojo said. 'Everybody seemed wet,' she said, but she didn't know why. Was it rainfall? Was it the napalm, was it a combination of both, as the fires could sometimes cause localized rainfall? What Hojo does remember vividly is what she saw when she came down into the city the morning after the raid. Her house still stood — at the very edge of the destruction. Beyond it, she could see for miles, distances unimaginable the day before, with smoke still rising from what a day earlier was Kumagaya. The next day, as she and her family walked through the ruins, hoping to get to her grandparents' home about six miles away, it was wet, very wet. All along the route, through the city's burned downtown district, many adults were lying on the ground amid the rubble, crying inconsolably, which she says is her most painful memory of the war. It's a brutally hot June afternoon when we begin our visit to explore Kumagaya, now with a population of almost 200,000 and just over an hour by rail from Tokyo. At the train station, a souvenir T-shirt espouses the city's modern claim to fame: the hottest temperature ever recorded in Japan — 41.1 degrees Celsius (105.98 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 23, 2018. From there, Yoshida takes us on the six-minute drive to the Sekijoji Buddhist temple, where outside a Japanese elm tree has grown new wood around that which was charred on the night of August 14, 1945. Inside, 79-year-old head priest Tetsuya Okayasu introduces us to a wooden statue of Kobodaishi — one of ancient Japan's most respected Buddhist monks — a sacred symbol of spiritual legacy and devotion. The left side of the statue's smooth, cherubic face is blackened by fire. Okayasu explained how this was one of seven sacred statues in the temple, and it was the last one inside the structure as it burned from the American bombs. His father risked his life to get it out, he said, literally as the structure crumbled around him. After the war, his father stashed the statue away. Near the father's death, as he handed leadership to his son, he told him his two wishes for the statue: One, it should never be repaired. 'The statue is a living witness to the air raid on Kumagaya,' Okayasu said his father told him. And two, it should never be shown to the public. 'Because it is heartbreaking in appearance, people should not see him like this,' his father instructed. The son has kept the first promise and held to the second for years, until the director of the nearby Saitama peace museum asked to display the statue. Okayasu relented. The first members of the public to see it were young people at the museum's summer peace education program. It showed evidence of the horror of war and what it had done to Kumagaya long before their births, he said. The statue worked, and the children who visited it asked questions — some were brought to tears — and began to understand their heritage better, the museum director told Okayasu. 'While I feel bad going against my father's will, I have decided that if people are to learn about peace, they can see the statue,' Okayasu said, his voice trembling in a whisper. Still, he doesn't display it constantly. But he'll bring it out for those with an interest, as he did for CNN. Outside the temple, Okayasu points out a gate with a slim tiled roof. It's the only part of the complex that stood after the bombing. Okayasu, who was 10 days old when Kumagaya was bombed, explained its importance to him. The 200 or so square feet under that gate roof, with makeshift walls of burned corrugated iron, were shelter for him, his mother and father, four siblings and grandmother, for six months as they waited for post-war housing to be built. Kumagaya, along with nearby Isesaki, were the last cities to burn from US firebombs, but were just the final blows in a campaign that began in February 1945. The fire raids were the brainchild of Gen. Curtis LeMay. He'd been given command of the US bomber force in the Pacific after earlier B-29 raids, using high-explosive bombs dropped from 30,000 feet, were ineffective at crippling the Japanese war machine. As few as 20% of targets were hit in those early raids, and air crews blamed poor visibility in bad weather and jet stream winds blowing bombs off target after being dropped from high altitude. LeMay's plan shocked many of those involved in the war effort. The B-29s would go in low, at 5,000 to 8,000 feet. They'd go in at night. And they would go in single file, rather than in the large multi-layered formations the US had used in the daylight bombing of German forces in Europe. And they'd carry incendiary bombs, cluster munitions dropped in cannisters of 38 apiece that broke apart near impact, spreading their bomblets of napalm over a wide area. LeMay thought they'd be perfect to burn Japan's wooden homes and businesses, and he was quickly proven right. A March 9-10 fire raid on the capital of Tokyo killed 100,000 people, the deadliest air raid in human history, a toll worse than Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It — and subsequent raids — destroyed about 60% of the city, leaving about a million people homeless. The worst-hit city was Toyama — 99% destroyed — on August 1. Robert McNamara, who was US defense secretary during much of the Vietnam War, was a Guam-based analyst of bombing effectiveness in 1945. The fire raids, McNamara said in the 2003 documentary 'The Fog of War,' showed humanity 'has not really grappled with what are, I'll call it, 'the rules of war.' LeMay said, 'If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals.' And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?' Though it was dozens of US B-29s that burned Kumagaya in 1945, the survivors and others in Kumagaya said they hold no animosity toward America. Norihiro Ooi, curator at the Kumagaya City Library, said Kumagaya was really just unlucky, bad timing. 'The reason Kumagaya became the site of the last air raid was simply by chance,' Ooi said. If the surrender had been announced sooner, or if peace negotiations had started later, it would've been someplace else, he said. 'One place had to be the last bombed,' he said. That's little consolation to Hojo, the 87-year-old survivor. 'If it was just one day earlier that the war ended,' she said. 'The very next day Japan was defeated. Kumagaya's tragedy feels utterly foolish in that light.' Some people blame the Imperial Japanese government. Its invasion of China beginning in 1931 set the stage for World War II in the Pacific and the destruction that would eventually be meted out by the US and its allies, they said. The years of conflict brought a momentum of war. 'Once it reaches that point, common sense and conscience can no longer resist it,' Yoshida said, adding that Imperial Japan's system of governance left no checks or restraints on the power of the military. Poet author Yoneda talked about, as an adult, visiting Nanjing, China, where from December 1937 to February 1938 Imperial Japanese troops massacred more than 300,000 people, including Chinese troops and civilians and raped tens of thousands of women. The visit gave her a new perspective on her city's fate, she said. 'In Japan, the focus is on the damage Japan suffered during the war, but I was shocked to learn about the Nanjing Massacre — a part of history where Japan was the perpetrator.' Hojo and Yoneda turn their thoughts to the Americans who were in those B-29s. 'The human heart is complex — we endured terrible suffering, but those who inflicted it must have suffered in their own way, too,' Hojo said. 'That means even the US military had hesitations, doesn't it?' Yoneda asks. Vivian Lock was the pilot of the second-to-last B-29 to hit Kumagaya that night. In a 2004 exchange of letters with a Kumagaya survivor, Ken Arai, Lock gave an airman's perspective on the raid. 'I have always regretted all the innocent people killed, injured and the loss of home and property,' wrote Lock, who died in 2010. In his correspondence, he noted how on the flight to Japan B-29 crews were eager to hear the code word that Japan had surrendered — 'Utah.' More than once, radio silence between his aircraft and others on the mission was broken with the words, 'Have you heard anything yet?' Lock wrote. 'Meaning that they were hoping the war had ended.' Yoneda said the situation was really beyond the control of anyone directly involved that night. 'I'm not going to say Kumagaya had to happen,' she said. 'But if war starts, it's hard to end.' A short walk from the temple is a stream bed, fresh water gurgling through the heart of Kumagaya for several blocks. It's arrow-straight now, but in 1945 it was a meandering creek – and a grave for some of the hundreds of people who died that night. They jumped into the streambed, hoping to avoid the flames and heat. But because the stream was narrow and the buildings on its banks were made of wood, the burning structures collapsed on them. Now, a statue marks that spot, the names of the known Kumagaya victims inscribed on its base. Susumu Fujino lived near that spot in August 1945. He was 3 years old at the time, and shrapnel from a US bomb hit him in the shoulder. Eighty years later, he still lives there and is outside tending to his garden as Yoshida shows us the area. Fujino removes his shirt and shows us the scar from the night of the bombing that remains with him. Behind him, a poster advertises upcoming local commemorations of 'The Last Fire Raid.' That night and the scars of war are something Fujino didn't talk about for most of his life, he said. But, at 83, he's talking now as he and the other survivors come to the end of their lives. Fujino now uses his retirement years to grow the Kumagaiso, an orchid, and Kumagai Tsubaki, a camellia flower. Both are now considered symbols of peace for Kumagaya. The fire raid left the flowers at risk of extinction, Fujino said. 'Kumagaiso plants were almost completely wiped out. That's why I've been growing them — I want to preserve them. To me, they are symbols of peace.' His own peace garden, just a few hundred feet from the stream where so many died. Kumagaya can be a side day trip if you're visiting Tokyo and want something different to do off the usual tourist tracks. Most of the sites related to the Kumagaya fire raid are a short bus or taxi ride — or even a walk — from Kumagaya Station, which is accessible from Tokyo Station by Japan's Shinkansen bullet trains in around 40 minutes or only an hour and 15 minutes when using standard rail lines. If you want to visit the Sekijoji Temple and see the burned statue, be sure to contact the temple beforehand so they can get it ready for viewing. A small museum on the second floor of the Kumagaya City Library, a short walk south from the train station, has a history of the area and includes an exhibit on the fire raid. There's not much information in English, however. The stream near the center of the bombing attack is a few blocks north of the station and if you walk along it to the west, you'll see the statue commemorating the victims of the fire raid. From August 13 to 18, you can visit a peace exhibition, 'The Last Air Raid on Kumagaya,' at Yagihashi Department Store in the city, co-hosted by the Kumagaya Air Raid Memorial Civic Organization. Yoneda will be reading her poems.
