Australia Charges Man in Melbourne Synagogue Arson Linked to Iran

Australian authorities have filed charges against a 20-year-old man over the December 2024 arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, saying he carried out the attack on Iran’s direction. According to police, he was one of three masked men who broke into the synagogue in the early morning hours of December 6, 2024, poured a flammable liquid inside and set it on fire. The blaze caused extensive damage, and two worshippers suffered minor smoke inhalation.

The country’s counterterrorism unit charged the unnamed suspect with offenses including arson. AP reported that he is currently in a Melbourne jail, already held there on unrelated charges. Police did not say what those other allegations were. Two other suspects have previously been arrested, including the man’s associate, Giovanni Laoluo, 21, detained in July last year, and another suspect, Younas Ali Younas, 20, arrested a month later.

The case is part of a broader investigation into alleged Iranian-backed attacks in Australia. Last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of orchestrating the synagogue fire and an earlier arson attack, two months before that, on a kosher restaurant in Sydney. Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said the Revolutionary Guards used a “complex network of proxies to hide their involvement” in both antisemitic attacks.

Australia responded by expelling Iran’s ambassador and three other Iranian diplomats. Tehran denied the allegations. On Friday, Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Peter Crozier said investigators are working with international partners and are also examining whether the three attackers knew who was behind the synagogue arson. Victoria Deputy Police Commissioner Paul O’Halloran said the Jewish community had been informed of the third arrest before the announcement, adding, “People deserve the right to feel safe and to be safe in their community, and especially in their place of worship. The charges today are a strong testament to that.”