Extent of Victoria’s watchlist for extremists revealed at Bourke St inquest

Police hold serious concerns over about 200 terror suspects who are under investigation in Victoria.

There are about 200 terror suspects being investigated in Victoria, it has emerged.

The figure includes national security persons of interest and other individuals police hold serious concerns about.

The revelation came during the coronial inquest into ­Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, who killed Melbourne cafe identity Sisto Malaspina in Bourke St on November 9, 2018.

Officer E, then a senior officer with Victoria Police’s ­Security Intelligence Unit, told the Coroner’s Court on Thursday that staff had been managing a huge caseload in 2018 and as a result had to “prioritise risk”.

He said there were currently about 200 persons of ­interest being investigated by the SIU — but that figure had been as high as 300 recently.

The SIU first became aware of Shire Ali in 2015.

The 30-year-old was being monitored by police and other agencies in the months leading up to the deadly incident. The handling of the case by various agencies is being examined at the inquest into Shire Ali’s death and that of much-loved Mr Malaspina, 74.

Police respond to the Bourke St attack.

Hassan Khalif Shire Ali attacks police on Bourke St.

Officer E said intelligence had been gathered about Shire Ali, but it did not prepare them for the carnage that unfolded.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Catherine Fitzgerald, asked Officer E to explain how someone with the security classification Shire Ali was under could “go on to commit” such a crime.

“The intelligence we were in possession of didn’t support that,” he said.

“Is this incident … the very sort of incident the SIU were hoping to avoid?” Ms Fitzgerald asked him.

“Yes,” said Officer E.

Ms Fitzgerald: “So it (the attack)] must have come as quite a surprise?”

Officer E told her that it had been. He could not say what the unit had learned as a result as he was no longer part of it and had not been part of a formal review before he left.

Shire Ali drove down Bourke St with a ute full of gas cylinders that he set alight before the stabbing attack that killed Mr Malaspina and injured two others.

The inquest has heard Shire Ali left what appeared to be pamphlets preaching the Islamic faith on cafe tables at Docklands before driving the ute around the city and MCG precinct, eventually parking at Bourke St.

The depth of his religious beliefs has been examined at the inquest as it led investigators to form an opinion about his danger level.

During a search of his vehicle prior to the incident, religious material was found in his car. Ms Fitzgerald asked Officer E if that was a flag that should have raised concerns.

Officer E said without seeing the documents himself, he couldn’t say how troubling it was. At the time, they believed Shire Ali was acting in defiance of radical Islam, and considered him more an “active criminal” than someone they feared had been radicalised.

“He was not maintaining an ideology consistent with extremist ideology,” a witness known as Officer 23 said this week.

The inquest continues.

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