{"id":73380,"date":"2026-08-17T00:44:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T00:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73380\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T00:44:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T00:44:49","slug":"former-asio-agent-says-australians-deserve-to-know-what-led-to-bondi-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73380\/","title":{"rendered":"Former ASIO agent says Australians ‘deserve to know’ what led to Bondi attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former ASIO agent who claims to have warned security agencies about the Bondi gunmen years before last December’s terror attack says Australians “deserve to know” what led to the shooting.<\/p>\n

The former agent, known as Marcus, is seeking to return to Australia to give evidence to the Bondi royal commission in person.<\/p>\n

His first visa application was rejected; however, he recently lodged a new one.<\/p>\n

In a statement provided to the ABC, Marcus said he wants to provide whatever insights he can to understand how the shooting came to take place.<\/p>\n

Ex-ASIO agent reapplies for visa <\/a><\/p>\n

It is the former agent’s second bid to enter Australia after his first visa was rejected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The victims of the Bondi terror attack and their families, and all Australians, deserve to know what led to those tragic events. I want to help,” he said.<\/p>\n

The former agent spent years infiltrating Islamic extremist groups in western Sydney, working as a paid source for domestic spy agency ASIO.<\/p>\n

His cover was eventually blown, and he fell out with ASIO, which has since described him as a “disgruntled and unreliable source” \u2014 characterisations Marcus rejects.<\/p>\n

Marcus has previously told the ABC’s Four Corners about his interactions with the Bondi gunmen, Sajid and Naveed Akram.<\/p>\n

He claims he warned ASIO about the Akrams years before the attack.<\/p>\n

“When information about the perpetrators was first released, I felt sick \u2014 because I knew Sajid and Naveed Akram personally,” he said in the statement.<\/p>\n

“Through my prior work, I had become close to Naveed and grown concerned about the apparent radicalisation of both Sajid and Naveed.<\/p>\n

“I had raised concerns about their radicalisation.”<\/p>\n

Marcus is currently living in an undisclosed location abroad, and has said he fears for his safety.<\/p>\n

‘Security concerns’ behind desire to return\"A<\/p>\n

An ASIO agent, codenamed Marcus, undercover in Australia.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Marcus has argued he needs to return to Australia to give evidence to the royal commission and police in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The royal commission and New South Wales police have both expressed an interest in speaking with Marcus, and a letter from the royal commission was provided with his first visa application.<\/p>\n

In the statement provided to the ABC, Marcus said he needed to give that evidence onshore.<\/p>\n

Ex-spy denied visa ahead of Bondi RC<\/a><\/p>\n

The man who previously warned ASIO about the Bondi gunmen will not be able to give sensitive and classified evidence at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.<\/p>\n

“Due to the sensitivity of the information I hold, security concerns, the need for legal protections and other factors, I have come to the view \u2014 informed by expert legal advice \u2014 that I need to come to Australia to engage with the royal commission in person,” he said.<\/p>\n

His first visa application was denied because immigration authorities were not satisfied he genuinely intended to leave Australia.<\/p>\n

Marcus has previously sought assistance from Australia for protection and resettlement.<\/p>\n

Government sources have pointed to the royal commission not formally calling Marcus as a witness; however, the ABC has seen correspondence from the royal commission expressing its interest in hearing from him.<\/p>\n

Those sources also suggested to the ABC that Marcus’ evidence could be given remotely, and still be heard securely.<\/p>\n

Several whistleblower advocacy groups have aired their support for Marcus’s bid to return to Australia, including the Information Rights Project, the Free Speech Union and PEN International.<\/p>\n

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network has also supported his bid to return.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Shipton from the Information Rights Project says travelling to Australia is the safest option for Marcus.<\/p>\n

“He’s in hiding in a foreign country because of the work that he did for the Australian government, because of the undercover work that he did,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There are a lot of risks around him travelling to a place where he might give video evidence, risks to his life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former ASIO agent who claims to have warned security agencies about the Bondi gunmen years before last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1540,22,21,5139,2799,2815,2814,104934,76018,2817],"class_list":["post-73380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-asio","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bondi","tag-bondi-royal-commission","tag-bondi-shooting","tag-bondi-terror-attack","tag-former-asio-agent","tag-marcus","tag-royal-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}