A man allegedly directed Nazi swastikas to be painted on a synagogue and played key roles in other anti-Semitic attacks, including a childcare centre firebombing.
The 27-year-old was revealed on Wednesday as the alleged mastermind of attacks last summer, which left the Jewish community in fear and were roundly condemned.
Counter-terrorism detectives allege he directed a 26-year-old man to graffiti the Allawah Synagogue in southern Sydney on January 10.
Swastikas were scrawled across the place of worship, which is in the Kogarah electorate of NSW Premier Chris Minns.
He said at the time the act was committed by “bastards … with hate in their hearts”.
The 27-year-old man was also charged with three counts of criminal group activity, including one of knowingly or recklessly directing a criminal group.
Police said the charges relate to three other incidents under investigation in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
A childcare centre near the Maroubra Synagogue in Sydney’s east was destroyed by fire and had an anti-Semitic slogan sprayed on a wall on January 21.
That came four days after the house formerly belonging to Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin was targeted in an arson and graffiti attack
A school in Maroubra was later spray-painted with anti-Semitic screeds on January 30.
Mr Minns dubbed the spate of anti-Semitic arson incidents as a “summer of racism.”
Australia in August expelled Iran’s ambassador over intelligence indicating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was connected through criminal proxies to firebombing of a Sydney kosher deli and a synagogue in Melbourne.
Police said they charged the 26-year-old man in June and the 27-year-old in July.
Both men are due to appear in court in October.
Source: AAP
