Revealed: New threat by LynnMall terrorist before fatal attack
The New Lynn mall terrorist forged medical records and statements from his family to bolster his claim for refugee status, which was revoked later when the bogus documents were discovered by police investigating his support for Islamic State.
And a former workmate of the 32-year-old, who stabbed and wounded several shoppers at a New Lynn supermarket on Friday, says he would boast about duping immigration officials.
“New Zealand Government, they don’t know about my visa,” the excolleague said the would-be terrorist told him.
“He was trying to say he was ripping-off the New Zealand system, I think he was just bragging.”
The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had a “sinking feeling” when he saw the Herald’s story last month reporting how the Crown had unsuccessfully sought to prosecute Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.
“When you guys ran that photo the other week, of him blurred out with the air-rifle, I thought: ‘Oh my god’.”
Samsudeen, who was shot dead by police in Friday’s attack, was born in Sri Lanka and came to New Zealand in October 2011 on a student visa.
His original claim for asylum was rejected by Immigration New Zealand, but Samsudeen was successful in appealing the decision to the Immigration Protection Tribunal (IPT) in December 2013.
Among his claims, Samsudeen said he and his father were attacked, kidnapped and tortured because of their political background in Sri Lanka and, while the IPT considered aspects of his account were “superficially unsatisfactory”, the panel thought he was credible.
This was largely because much of his account related to events which happened to his father and a psychologist’s report which said Samsudeen presented as a “highly distressed and damaged young man” suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Then Samsudeen came to attention of police counter-terrorism officers and intelligence agencies in 2016 following a social media post sympathetic to Islamic State (Isis) attacks in Europe.
He was arrested at Auckland International Airport in May 2017 having bought a ticket for a flight to Singapore. Police believe he was attempting to join Isis forces fighting in Syria.
When they searched his apartment, detectives found a large hunting knife hidden under his mattress and seized his computer, which contained photographs and videos of extreme violence supporting the extreme Isis ideology.
The forensic search of his computer hard drive also found medical records which contained details different to those Samsudeen submitted in support of his refugee claim, according to sources.
This prompted the police to consider whether they could verify the bona fides of Samsudeen’s story. Traditionally, the police have been barred from doing so for fear of retribution on the family of those seeking asylum.
In this case, the police sought a legal opinion from Crown Law which advised they could check Samsudeen’s story with members of his family — who had also left Sri Lanka — but not any government or official stories.
Detectives interviewed members of his family who confirmed they had been targeted during Sri Lanka’s civil war, but their statements did not corroborate some of Samsudeen’s more serious torture and kidnap
claims. Armed with this new information from police, and bearing in mind Samsudeen had been radicalised to the point of talking about a lone wolf-style attack, immigration officials revoked his refugee status in February 2019 and served him with a deportation notice.
Again, he appealed to the IPT. The hearing was scheduled to take place last month but was adjourned because of the Covid-19 lockdown.
By this time, Samsudeen was getting closer to being released from prison and agencies were concerned about the risk he posed to the community.
“Immigration New Zealand explored whether the Immigration Act might allow them to detain the individual while his deportation appeal was heard,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
“It was incredibly disappointing and frustrating when legal advice came back to say this wasn’t an option.”
Immigration NZ said last night that its attempt to deport Samsudeen was based partly on criminal charges on which he was found not guilty. Fairness and natural justice meant it could not use those arguments against him without giving him a right of reply.
As a result, the legal advice found Samsudeen was unlikely to be deported and therefore INZ could not reasonably argue for his detention.
While moves to deport Samsudeen were taking place, he was facing new criminal charges.
He had already been sentenced to a year of supervision in September 2018 after pleading guilty to representative charges of knowing distribution of restricted material under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classifications Act, two charges of dishonestly using a document, and one charge of refusing to assist police.
He was arrested again just a day after being granted bail pending his initial supervision sentence for buying an identical hunting knife from an East Tamaki shop.
After two charges, including for possession of a metal throwing star, were dismissed last year, Samsudeen went to trial in May at the High Court at Auckland.
The jury found him guilty of two counts of possessing objectionable propaganda-style Isis material, a pair of nasheeds (hymns and chants) with images.
He was acquitted of a third charge of possessing an objectionable and violently graphic Isis video.
Samsudeen was also acquitted of possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, the knife he bought at the East Tamaki shop.
He was found guilty of failing to comply with a police search after refusing to provide police with his pin code for his devices.
In July, he was sentenced to 12 months’ supervision by Justice Sally Fitzgerald, who declined to impose the Crown-sought condition of GPS monitoring.
The prosecutor had, however, conceded GPS monitoring would not prevent the type of offending for which he had been found guilty.
When Samsudeen carried out his attack he was on bail, granted a week after his July sentencing by a District Court judge, for assaulting two Corrections staff while in custody.