Iran link to Australian synagogue attack uncovered via money trail, spy agency says

Australia’s intelligence agency has traced the funding of hooded criminals who allegedly set fire to a Melbourne synagogue, linking the antisemitic attack to Iran, officials say, even as those charged with the crime were likely unaware Tehran was their puppet master.

A 20-year-old local man, Younes Ali Younes, appeared in Melbourne’s Magistrates Court today charged with the December 6 arson attack on the Adass Israel synagogue and theft of a car. He did not enter a plea and did not seek bail. His lawyer declined to comment to Reuters.

Australia’s spy chief Mike Burgess says a series of “cut outs,” an intelligence term for intermediaries, were used to conceal Iran’s involvement in the attacks, and warned that the country may have orchestrated others.

The investigation worked backwards through payments made onshore and offshore to “petty and sometimes not so petty criminals,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says in parliament.

The turning point in the investigation came weeks earlier, as Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) seized mobile phones and digital devices from suspects arrested in Victoria state over the synagogue attack — and highlighted a stolen blue Volkswagen Golf sedan used in unrelated attacks.

CCTV footage of the night of December 6 released by police shows three hooded figures unloading red jerrycans of fuel from the boot of the car, one of whom was wielding an axe, at the entrance of the synagogue and setting it alight before speeding away.

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, an intiative between Victoria Police, @AusFedPolice and @ASIOGovAu has released footage of those believed to responsible for an arson attack on a Synagogue in Ripponlea last year.
https://t.co/YF7sIp063s pic.twitter.com/ZkmxskJ20K

— Victoria Police (@VictoriaPolice) May 15, 2025

Victoria’s Joint Counter Terrorism Team alleged Younes, 20, stole the car to carry out the attack and recklessly endangered lives by setting fire to the A$20 million synagogue when people were inside, a charge sheet shows. No one was wounded in the attack.

A co-accused, Giovanni Laulu, 21, appeared in court last month on the same charges.

Police have referred to the sedan as a “communal crime car” linked to other attacks that were not politically motivated.

Yesterday, Albanese said Australia’s intelligence agencies had shown the attack, and another in Sydney last year, were directed by the Iranian government, and expelled Tehran’s ambassador, becoming the latest Western government to accuse Iran of carrying out hostile covert activities on its soil.