Australian police charge another teen for church stabbing

Australian police have charged another teenager with a terrorism-related offence in investigations after the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop while he was giving a live streamed sermon in Sydney earlier this month.

The boy, 15, was charged with conspiring to prepare a terrorist act, New South Wales police said, adding that his case would be heard in a children’s court later today.

The attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, injured in the 15 April attack at his church, came only days after a deadly mass stabbing in Bondi.

Gun and knife crime is rare in Sydney, one of the world’s safest big cities.

Police on Thursday laid terrorism-related charges against five other teenagers, allegedly associates of a boy, 16, previously charged over the knifing of Mr Emmanuel.

Mr Emmanuel, a bishop at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley, is a social media star and a fiery critic of homosexuality, COVID vaccinations, Islam and US President Joe Biden’s election.

The Assyrian Church, which has its world headquarters in Iraq, is a Christian sect with its historical origins in parts of modern Turkey, Syria and Iran.