Australian PM vows answers on Sydney gunman

The Australian prime minister faced questions on Wednesday about why the gunman, Iranian-born Man Haron Monis, was not on a security watchlist.

Abbott promised a transparent investigation into why 50-year-old Monis had been omitted, despite criminal charges and a history of instability.

"The system did not adequately deal with this individual," Abbott conceded on Wednesday. "My intention certainly would be to publish a report on this so it will be out there for all to see."

Monis, a self-styled Islamist cleric who was described by Abbott as "a madman," took 17 people hostage in a downtown cafe in Sydney on Monday. The siege ended in gunfire after 16 hours, when police rushed in to free the captives. Two hostages were killed, along with Monis, although the precise circumstances remain subject to investigation.

'Grossly offensive' letters

Monis was last year convicted and sentenced to 300 hours of community service for sending what were described by a judge as "grossly offensive" letters to families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2009.

He was later charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife and, earlier this year, with the sexual assault of a woman in 2002. Monis had been freed on bail on the charges.

Last month, he posted a message in Arabic that pledged allegiance to "the Caliph of the Muslims," which some have interpreted as being the "Islamic State" (IS) militant group. Monis was understood to be upset at Australia's participation in the battle against IS.

"These are the questions that we'll be having our officials ponder because he was a person who had been of interest to our security agencies," Prime Minister Abbott told Australia's ABC radio when challenged about the threshold of perceived danger for a suspect to be on the watchlist. "We want to know why he wasn't being monitored, given his history of violence, his history of mental instability, and his history of infatuation with extremism."

Flowers laid outside cafe

Australians on Wednesday poured into Martin Place, the district where the Lindt Chocolat Cafe is situated, and left a mountain of floral tributes to honor the hostages who were killed.

The two deceased hostages were Katrina Dawson, a 38-year-old lawyer and mother of three, and 34-year-old Tori Johnson, the cafe's manager.

Iran said on Wednesday that it had filed a request for Monis to be extradited, but that this did not happen due to the lack of an extradition agreement with Australia. Monis was granted asylum in Australia in 2001.

rc/bk (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)