Jewish leaders seek answers on flydubai co-pilot

The co-pilot accused of trying to crash a flydubai jet into Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport began drifting towards extremism while studying in Melbourne, according to the United Arab Emirates Attorney-General.

His statement names a Broadmeadows Islamic centre.

Attorney-General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, 29, told investigators he regularly attended a mosque while attending RMIT University, where he became acquainted with people associated with a centre known as “My Centre”.

According to al-Hammami’s account, the centre was managed by a Lebanese man known as “Abu Hamza” and allegedly received support from an association linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. The statement did not name the association.

MyCentre, the Broadmeadows centre, is headed by Sheikh Samir Mohtadi, who is known as Abu Hamza.

The UAE has not alleged that MyCentre or Mohtadi played any part in the plot or in al-Hammami’s radicalisation, and the claims about the centre are attributed solely to the suspect. Al-Hammami told investigators he acted alone.

Jewish community leaders say the case raised urgent questions about radicalisation in Australia.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said: “It is deeply concerning but hardly surprising that yet more terrorists appear to have been radicalised in Australia.”

“We have to understand who associated with this terrorist, who influenced him and what vestiges of his murderous ideology remain in our country before another deadly attack,” he said.

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein said the UAE’s findings were “deeply concerning”.

“How many other would-be terrorists are being radicalised in Australia right now?” he said.

“As the Royal Commission has shown, the lessons of Bondi must include a serious examination of how radicalisation takes hold in Australia, whether warning signs are being missed, and what more can be done to prevent future tragedies.”

Al Shamsi said the findings indicated that “signs of his drift towards extremism and terrorism first emerged in 2017, while he was studying in Australia”. He said al-Hammami had been influenced by extremist literature and online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks.

On September 30, al-Hammami allegedly attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with the cockpit’s emergency crash axe on Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, which was carrying more than 170 people.

Machchhar unlocked the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to overpower his attacker, and a reserve flydubai pilot landed the aircraft at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia.

The UAE says al-Hammami intended to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion’s passenger terminal, drew inspiration from the September 11 attacks and gave a detailed confession in the presence of his lawyer.

Al-Hammami received an Australian student visa in 2014 and studied in Melbourne between 2015 and 2017. RMIT has confirmed he was enrolled but did not complete an engineering qualification.

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, comprising the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO, has confirmed it is investigating al-Hammami’s links to Australia. Australian authorities have not accused him of any offence here.

The Financial Times has reported that Australian intelligence held a file on al-Hammami and that he allegedly visited radical mosques and extremist websites while in the country, citing two people familiar with the investigation.

Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the material that influenced al-Hammami had come from online sources as well as from his time in Melbourne.

“It was while he was in Melbourne, but it was also online that the material was coming and this is where we need to deal with both,” he said.

Asked about a media report that MyCentre had received a $60,000 grant from the Department of Home Affairs, Burke said he did not have more information, described it as a reasonable question and said he would find out.

The Victorian Government provided $393,000 in the 2023-24 State Budget to the Multicultural Youth Centre to build a Centre for Muslim Women’s Well-being in Melbourne’s north. That funding was granted six years after al-Hammami left Australia.

Multicultural Affairs Minister Ingrid Stitt disclosed the grant in June 2025 in response to questions from Nationals MP Jade Benham at parliamentary budget estimates hearings.

“Mr Mohtadi is on the record of saying some very ugly things that I’m not going to repeat here regarding the Jewish Australian community,” Benham told the committee at the time.

In 2006, Mohtadi gave evidence for the prosecution at the committal hearing of men later convicted in the Benbrika terrorism case.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not a listed terrorist organisation in Australia. The UAE designated it a terrorist organisation in 2014.