Sayet Erhan Akca, mastermind allegedly behind caravan ‘terror’ plot, posted vile anti-Semitic slurs
Sydney gym owner Sayit Erhan Akca, who is reportedly the man police allege was responsible for the ‘terror caravan’ plot posted comments praising Hitler and attacking Israel.
The fugitive alleged to be behind the “terror caravan plot” posted vile anti-Semitic slurs for years before fleeing Australia, after being charged with alleged drug importation offences.
Police believe Sayet Erhan Akca, a former gym and child care centre owner, was hoping to leverage a lenient court sentence by providing fabricated information to police about the discovery of an explosives laden caravan and a series of anti-Semitic arson and graffiti attacks in Sydney.
In recent statements, police had downplayed claims that the kingpin - who they still have not publicly identified - was motivated by anti-Semitism.
However The Australian can reveal that Akca posted a series of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli slurs over a period of many years as he was building his gym business.
In one post Akca claims that “Hitler was only washing earth, they made him out to be evil”.
In 2018 he posted: “How did 6 million die when only 3.2 registered Jews in Europe at the time?”
In response to a report that vandals targeted the Jewish community spraying swastikas on cars, he responded: “Zeig heil.”
In 2022 he posted: “Why was no one this caring about Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya or Syria? Oh.. cause western invasion is ok. But eastern is evil. There has never been a war, only a big guy bullying a small guy for self interest.”
A relative responded: “Good on you mate you’re talking hundred per cent right. Your dad must be proud of you.”
The former gym and childcare centre owner has been living in Asia and Turkey since leaving Australia in mid-2023 while on bail over charges of attempting to import a commercial quantity of drugs using the AN0M messaging app.
After visiting a mosque in Istanbul in 2018 and what appears to be a picture of himself praying, Akca posted a bizarre “common question” about whether it was true “that Muslims believe they get 40 virgins for act of terror / mass suicidal murder?”
His Answer:”Let me ask, would you like to pop 40 cherries ? Would you like to change 40 bed sheets ? So Yes, we believe that you go straight to hell for killing yourself or any of Gods creatures unless it’s for eating purpose and done the Halal (natural) way. Not with a c4. #DumbestTheorySinceFlatEarth. No Pun Intended... but no one besides the educated would understand that anyway.”
As far back as 2016 Akca was posting claims that: “America gets caught funding $540M to produce ‘isis’ videos”.
In December 2016 he posted “R.I.P. to all those innocents that have died in Aleppo and around the world in the hands of Terrorism, and I mean from the root of Terrorism, America and the Zionists, taking out these people like Saddam, Bin Ladin & Gadaffi, look what its started.
“You still think 9/11 was not an inside job to start this money making and muslim massacre process, delete yourself now.”
The report about Akca allegedly being the caravan plot mastermind, in The Daily Telegraph, came as NSW Premier Chris Minns ruled out any repeal of hate speech laws passed last month, following revelations that several recent anti-Semitic attacks were orchestrated by a previously unnamed person with organised crime connections.
The NSW Greens on Wednesday claimed the attacks were “not motivated by anti-Semitism” and that the Minns government had “massively overreacted and jumped the gun with their kneejerk overreaching criminal laws”.
“I expect that the parliament will shortly be considering whether these unnecessary and reactive laws should be repealed, and so we should,” Greens MLC Sue Higginson said.
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties has also demanded an inquiry into whether Mr Minns “misled the parliament and public in order to pass the Places of Worship Bill and the Inciting Racial Hatred Bill”.
“The Minns Labor government has played right into the hands of those who concocted the caravan plot in using it to drive a repressive and fear-based legislative agenda that has further divided the community,” NSWCCL president Timothy Roberts said.
However, the Premier on Thursday reiterated that the legislation would not be repealed.
“Our laws criminalised intentionally and publicly inciting hatred towards another person, or group, based on race,” he said. “They send a clear message: the people of NSW stand together against inciting racial hatred in our great multicultural state.
“NSW has seen hundreds of anti-Semitic attacks and incidents. This racial hatred has caused our Jewish community to live in fear in their own state. While the caravan was part of a criminal conspiracy – and not the plot of a terrorist organisation – it was still appalling racial hatred.”
NSW and federal police on Monday revealed a mystery overseas kingpin had masterminded a string of attacks on Sydney’s Jewish community by allegedly recruiting teenagers, low-level criminals and drug addicts to carry out his orders.
In simultaneous dawn raids, police arrested 14 people in relation to a series of vandalism and firebombing attacks – bringing the total number of arrests under the state police hate crimes unit to 29, with 143 charges laid.
The plot appears to span from as far back as an anti-Semitic vandalism attack in Woollahra in December to the discovery on January 19 of the explosives-laden caravan in Dural, northwest Sydney. After that discovery Mr Minns labelled it a terror event.
Police now say it was a “criminal con job” and “a fabricated terror plot” in a foiled attempt by a criminal – whom they previously refused to identify – to gain a bartering tool to have his sentence reduced or charges dropped.
Mr Minns on Thursday was at pains to point out the conspiracy had targeted the Jewish community “to instil terror in our state”. “In response to calls for the laws to be scrapped, doing so would be a toxic message to our community that this kind of hate speech is acceptable when it’s not,” he said.
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