Four Corners probe reveals fugitive behind hoax terror threat

A dramatic Four Corners exposé that screened on the ABC this week revealed the alleged ringleader of a series of antisemitic assaults in Sydney. The man now in the middle of one of Australia’s strangest and most chilling criminal dramas has finally spoken out in self-imposed exile in Türkiye.

In a highly unusual and controlled interview, fugitive Sayit Erhan Akca conceded to journalist Mahmood Fazal that he was central in the sourcing of the explosives that were discovered in a caravan last December. The caravan found containing a note of Jewish institutions caused shockwaves through the country and the Jewish population in general. Treated as a terror threat in the offing at the time, the caravan was parked close to a residential area and seemed destined for Jewish targets like the Great Synagogue and the Sydney Jewish Museum. Soon after the event, Premier Chris Minns described it as “a potential mass casualty event.”

 

Akca claimed that he arranged for the explosives-laden car to be transported there, saying that he was not acting out of terroristic motives, but rather for leverage. In the face of serious drug trafficking accusations, he had escaped Australia in contravention of conditions of bail, traveling overseas on a boat using underworld contacts to avoid capture and enter Southeast Asia. Over there, he claimed that he attempted to arrange a deal between the Australian Federal Police (AFP): information and explosives for a secure repatriation without jail.

“I didn’t organize the caravan,” Akca maintained. “I merely organized the seizure.” But his own statements blurred the line. He arranged to acquire the explosives through criminal associates, arranged for their transport, and personally designed the drop in the outlying Sydney suburb of Dural. He also conceded to ordering the driver to pull detonators out of the van, admitting the tremendous risk the weapons presented. “What happens if a child opens that door?” he said. “What happens if the wrong agency located it and it was ready to detonate? I’d have a charge of terrorism.”

Key to the controversy was Akca’s insistence that he had tipped off the AFP about the caravan’s whereabouts several days prior to its discovery by chance when a resident rang the police and expressed suspicion. Coordination between NSW Police and the AFP allegedly collapsed by that stage. NSW Police were not aware that the AFP was conducting secret dealings with Akca and initiated a complete terror response.

In fact, as validated by the police six weeks later, the plot was a meticulously planned criminal hoax and not a terrorist conspiracy. As Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett reported, Akca tried to use fear and publicity to strong-arm law enforcement officials to let him return to Australia without being detained prior to trial. “This was the work of criminals wanting to instill fear for their own personal gain,” Barrett told a press conference.

Akca denied targeting Jewish Australians intentionally and denied coordinating antisemitic firebombing and vandalism campaigns that terrorised the eastern suburbs of Sydney for months. But the Four Corners program uncovered incriminating social media statements that dated back to the past and involved Holocaust denial, Nazi salutes and ovens and Jewish victimisation-related jokes. There was a photo in which he stood beside an Orthodox Jewish man in New York, which was captioned after a grotesque Holocaust pun.

“It really does offend,” Akca conceded when presented with the postings. “I’m really sorry about it… I was only joking. That was how I was acting.” While he distanced himself from the opinions expressed in the postings, the remarks have infuriated Jewish leaders, who view Akca’s actions, and public downplaying of them, as symptomatic of a larger decline in safety and trust.

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, claimed the orchestrated nature of the plot served to do nothing to provide relief to the community. “There was relief for the last thing in the world I was thinking,” he stated. “There was a criminal element that got into this crisis. It was horrific. It was real terror. It was real harm.”

He added: “It weaponised our pain, our fear. It was an exploitation of a very raw and dangerous climate. The goal was not ideological, but the consequences were exactly that; real terror, real trauma.”
Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Elton was similarly blunt. “That makes it antisemitic. Suggesting the opposite is gaslighting,” he told the program. “This caused real psychological trauma.”

He further said: “Even if it was a ploy, a ploy that targets Jewish institutions, that exploits antisemitism, that terrorises the Jewish community: that is antisemitism.”

The reporter also spoke to one of the alleged drivers contracted to transport the caravan. Referring only to himself as a criminal-for-hire, he talked about being given last-minute instructions to search the contents. “I picked up a bag containing detonators,” he admitted but denied viewing a list or a letter in the van.

The wider inquiry into the antisemitic assaults has led to a succession of arrests, many of whom, the police claim, were vulnerable men paid relatively small sums to commit the acts. One man, arrested for a petrol bomb attack, reported receiving $50 and money for petrol. Another was identified as a drug user by the brother of the man in question, the rap artist NTER. “He wouldn’t even have a clue as to who the Prime Minister was,” said NTER. “Somebody must have said, ‘Here’s $500 to spray this,’ and he carried it out.”

In spite of mounting pressure, Akca was adamant that he would not be extradited. Now living in Türkiye on a passport taken out in Jakarta, he said he feels “safe” and told Four Corners the media and police had exaggerated the case. “I was prepared to return,” he stated. “No longer.”

As the AFP works to coordinate the international response and the investigations continue to develop, the Jewish community in Australia finds themselves struggling not only with the aftermath of the events but also with the revelation that their trauma was partly a criminal strategy.

“It has changed what it means to be Jewish in Australia,” Ryvchin claimed. “To wear a kippah in the street is now to commit an act of defiance. And that must worry all Australians.”

The Four Corners story can be viewed here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-05/the-fugitive/105255916