7 OCT 2026Curtis Cheng / Parramatta
7 OCT 2026 Cartoon of Muhammad causes riots
On 7 January 2015 gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The Guardian said the magazine "has attracted the opprobrium of some Muslim groups for its regular depictions of the prophet Muhammad". The cover of its first edition after the attack showed "a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad weeping while holding a sign saying 'I am Charlie'" (BBC).
Violent protests against the cartoon followed in Niger, where police said "at least 10 people have been killed and 45 churches set on fire". Five died in the capital Niamey and five in Zinder. Hotels and bars were burned, a Christian school and orphanage were torched, and more than 170 people were injured. The government declared three days of mourning (BBC, 19 Jan 2015; AP). In Zinder, protesters raided shops run by Christians and attacked the French cultural centre. The BBC said protests also took place in Pakistan, where those in Karachi turned violent, as well as Sudan, Algeria and Somalia.
Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said: "Those who loot these places of worship, who desecrate them and kill their Christian compatriots... have understood nothing of Islam" (BBC, 17 Jan 2015).
Australia: Prime Minister Tony Abbott called the attack "an unspeakable atrocity" and said: "Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of a free society … if you don't like something, you don't read it; you don't kill people you disagree with" (Guardian). More than a thousand people held a vigil at Sydney's Martin Place, and more than 1,000 gathered at Federation Square in Melbourne (Guardian/AAP).
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7 OCT 2026 Anzac Day terror plot, Melbourne
On 18 April 2015 a joint counter-terrorism operation in Melbourne’s south-east arrested several men over an alleged Islamic State-inspired plot against Anzac Day commemorations. About 200 officers took part (Operation Rising). Sevdet Besim, then 18, of Hallam, was charged with preparing or planning a terrorist act. Victoria Police said the planned attack included targeting police officers with edged weapons.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions later summarised that Besim planned to kill a police officer during Anzac Day commemorations and then use the officer’s weapon for further violence. He had been with Numan Haider in the hours before Haider’s September 2014 attack, and Haider’s death became a catalyst for his planning. He communicated online with a 14-year-old in the UK who encouraged the plot. Besim pleaded guilty to one count under Criminal Code s 101.6(1).
On 5 September 2016 he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 7 years and 6 months. Prime Minister Tony Abbott urged Australians to attend Anzac Day ceremonies in the largest possible numbers. Victoria increased visible policing for Anzac events.
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7 OCT 2026 Citizenship-stripping law passed
The Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Act 2015 (Act No. 166 of 2015) amended the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 to provide explicit powers for the cessation of Australian citizenship in specified circumstances where a dual citizen engaged in terrorism-related conduct. It finally passed both Houses on 3 December 2015 and received Royal Assent on 11 December 2015.
BBC reported Attorney-General George Brandis saying dual nationals who engage in terrorism “are betraying their allegiance to this country and do not deserve to be Australian citizens,” and that the laws would apply in “very limited circumstances.” The laws were not to leave anyone stateless. At the time, Brandis said at least 90 Australians were believed to be fighting with militant groups such as Islamic State, about half of them dual nationals.
Home Affairs later summarised that from 12 December 2015 until September 2020 the Citizenship Act contained automatic-cessation and related provisions (including former ss 33AA, 35 and 35A). Those arrangements were later replaced and then revised again after High Court decisions. The 2015 Act was the original citizenship-stripping law.
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7 OCT 2026 Sousse beach massacre, Tunisia
On 26 June 2015 a gunman opened fire on tourists at the Hotel Rui Imperial Marhaba beach resort at Port El Kantaoui, near Sousse, Tunisia, killing thirty-eight people. The BBC later reported that 30 of the dead were British tourists; others came from Ireland, Germany, Russia, Belgium and Portugal. Islamic State claimed responsibility. The attacker, Tunisian student Seifeddine Rezgui, arrived on the beach with a Kalashnikov hidden in a parasol and was later shot dead by police.
ABC News reported on the day that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said no Australians were among the dead. Most early British casualty confirmations came from UK authorities. The attack followed the March 2015 Bardo Museum attack in Tunis, a separate incident in which an Australian, Javier Camelo, was among those killed.
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Introduction
On 2 October 2015, Curtis Cheng, a 58-year-old civilian finance employee of the NSW Police Force, was shot dead outside NSW Police Force headquarters on Charles Street, Parramatta, as he left work for the day.
The shooter was 15. Sources name him as Farhad Jabar, Farhad Mohammad, or in full Farhad Jabar Khalil Mohammad. After firing the fatal shot, he was shot dead at the scene by police.
Hours earlier, the shooter had been given a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver by Raban Alou at Parramatta Mosque.
Government Response
The shooting was investigated by the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team, made up of NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police.
Raban Alou was charged. In May 2017 he pleaded guilty to committing a terrorist act, specifically aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring the act, under section 101.1 read with section 11.2(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth). On 1 March 2018 Justice Peter Johnson of the NSW Supreme Court sentenced him to 44 years' imprisonment with a 33-year non-parole period. The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions conducted the prosecution.
Milad Atai, who helped Alou find the gun, pleaded guilty to aiding the terrorist act and was jailed for up to 38 years in November 2018. Talal Alameddine supplied the gun. Mustafa Dirani was convicted in 2019 of conspiring to do an act of terrorism; that conviction was quashed on appeal in 2021, and at a retrial a jury found him guilty again.
The inquest
On 5 June 2026 Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee found that the attack was the result of violent Islamic extremism, that there had been "no reasonable opportunity" for authorities to intervene, and that the police officer who shot the teenager used appropriate force (ABC).
Summary
On 2 October 2015 a 15-year-old shot dead Curtis Cheng, a police finance worker, outside NSW Police headquarters in Parramatta. Police shot the boy dead. Raban Alou, who gave him the revolver at Parramatta Mosque that day, pleaded guilty to a terrorist act and was sentenced to 44 years.
Three other men were later convicted over the attack. A 2026 inquest found there had been no reasonable opportunity for authorities to intervene.
What the investigation established, who was charged and who was not, is set out in the evidence below.
You be the judge.
