Sydney hostage-taker fled to Malaysia before Australia, says Iran’s top cop

Sydney hostage-taker Mohammad Hassan Manteqi, who has a dark and long history of violent crime and fraud, had come to Malaysia after fleeing Iran.

Irans' Mehr New Agency cited the country's police chief Brig Gen Esmail Ahmadi Moqadam as telling reporters that Mohammad Hassan, who is also known as Man Haron Monis, had run a travel agency in 1996 and fled to Malaysia and then to Australia.

However, no details were available on the duration of his stay in Malaysia or his activities during that time.

“It lasted 4 years to collect evidence on Manteqi’s identification documents and we reported this to the Australian police but since Australia has no extradition treaty with Iran, they didn’t extradite him to Iran,” Esmail told reporters in Tehran.

“Such incidents indicate the system’s recklessness with the criminals; Manteqi fled the country in disguise, pretending to be a cleric so that he enjoy political asylum,” Mehr News quoted the police chief as saying.

Esmail said Iran was willing to cooperate with police in Australia, claiming that “the invisible hands of Western countries are clearly seen in this forged show to compensate for their inabilities by conspiring against Iran.”

Three people were killed, including Mohammad Hassan, when heavily armed police stormed a Sydney cafe early on Tuesday morning and freed terrified hostages held at gunpoint for 16 hours.

Police are investigating whether the two hostages were killed by Mohammad Hassan or died in the crossfire.

Mohammad Hassan was well known to Australian police and security agencies, having been charged as an accessory to murder and with dozens of counts of sexual and indecent assault. He had been freed on bail. – December 17, 2014.