Gunman holding nine hostages in Sydney cafe is a self-styled Iranian sheik on bail for ex-wife's murder and compared dead war heroes to Nazis in letters to their families.
Police are investigating the Iranian links of the Sydney cafe siege gunman after it emerged he is a Tehran-born self-styled sheik named Man Haron Monis who has demanded officers bring him the black flag of the Islamic State.
Born Manteghi Bourjerdi, the extremist left Iran for Australia in 1996 and adopted various names before settling on Sheik Haron Monis. Already well-known to police, Monis is currently on bail for more than 40 sexual offences relating to his work as a so-called spiritual healer.
He has previously been investigated for sending vile hate letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed by insurgents in Afghanistan, and was last November accused of being an accessory to murder of his ex-wife after her body was found badly burned and suffering knife wounds.
Calling himself 'The Brother', Monis this morning held staff and customers hostage in a Sydney chocolate shop in what experts roundly believe to be a so-called 'lone wolf' attack.
Wearing a black headband reading 'We are your soldiers O Muhammad' and forcing hostages to display a black flag emblazoned with Arabic text, Monis also called a local radio station to demand officers bring him black and white banner of the Islamic State.
While he was widely known as a practicing Shia Muslim, Monis is believed to have converted to Sunni Islam just last month when he posted a message on his now-suspended website rejecting Shiism and pledging allegiance to the Islamic State's terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
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