Man Monis attended extremist lecture months before siege

Martin Place gunman Man Haron Monis was a front-row guest at a radical Islamic lecture in Sydney’s west last year, just months before he carried out his deadly siege.

The lecture was put on by the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir and held at their premises in Lakemba in June, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Presented by Uthman Badar and Wassim Doureihi, the event was organised in response to the cancellation of a planned appearance by Badar at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House.

The planned festival lecture was titled ‘Honour Killings are Morally Justified,’ although Badar later said he had originally proposed to call his talk ‘The West Needs Saving By Islam’.

Images show Monis sitting in the front row for the presentation, further confirming his links with extremists, after pictures emerged earlier this year showing the gunman talking with the group’s leader, Ismail Al-Wahwah.

Monis was shot dead by police when they stormed the Lindt café where he was holding people hostage last December.

Café manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson also lost their lives.