Family of Bondi shooting accused Naveed Akram fear for their safety, court hears

The family of a man accused of killing 15 people at a Jewish festival on Sydney's Bondi Beach last year fear for their safety after a spate of alleged vigilante attacks, a court heard on Tuesday. Naveed Akram, 24, is accused of opening fire on a Hanukkah celebration on December 14 in Australia's worst mass shooting in decades.



Akram is seeking a gag order preventing the publication of the names or photos of his mother, brother and sister, as well as their home address and places of work and schooling, due to fears for their safety, his barrister Richard Wilson told a Sydney court.



Akram is charged with "the most serious and the most notorious terrorist attack this country has ever seen", Wilson said, putting his family at risk from attacks from "misguided and angry" members of the public.



The family has received death threats on several occasions in person and via phone and text message, while their home in the western Sydney suburb of Bonnyrigg had been targeted by "vigilantes", Wilson said. "They have had the intended effect of causing fear," he said, telling the court the family thought they were at risk of physical harm.