On a quiet December night in 2024, the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne was engulfed in flames, its sacred texts destroyed and its congregation left reeling. The attack, which caused millions of dollars in damage, has since become the focal point of a sweeping investigation that has sent shockwaves through Australia’s political and diplomatic landscape. This week, the case took a dramatic turn as authorities publicly accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of orchestrating the arson through a complex web of criminal proxies, leading to the unprecedented expulsion of Tehran’s ambassador from Canberra.
Younes Ali Younes, a 20-year-old from Melbourne’s northern suburbs, appeared via video link at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on August 27, 2025, charged with stealing a car and setting fire to the Adass Israel Synagogue on December 6, 2024. His co-accused, 21-year-old Giovanni Laulu, was charged the previous month on the same counts. Both men have been remanded in custody, with their next court appearances scheduled for December 4, 2025. The charges they face—arson, reckless conduct endangering life, and car theft—carry potential sentences of up to 15 years in prison for arson and 10 years for each of the other offenses.
Australian authorities allege that three masked arsonists poured liquid accelerant inside the synagogue before igniting it and fleeing the scene. CCTV footage, released by police, captured the trio unloading red jerry cans from a stolen blue Volkswagen Golf sedan, one wielding an axe, before setting the entrance ablaze. Inside, worshippers were present, and while no one was injured, the sense of vulnerability and trauma lingers in the community. As Benjamin Klein, a board member of the synagogue, told The Associated Press, “It is quite shocking and traumatic to think that a peaceful, loving shule in Melbourne is targeted and attacked by terrorists from overseas.”
Early in the investigation, the crime was declared a terrorist act, a move that unlocked additional resources for the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team—a collaboration between Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO). The team’s efforts, bolstered by a tip-off from Israeli intelligence, traced the funding for the attack to the IRGC in Tehran. ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess explained to reporters, “They're just using cut-outs, including people who are criminals and members of organized crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding.” He warned that intermediaries, or “cut outs,” were used to conceal Iran’s involvement and suggested that similar attacks might have been orchestrated elsewhere.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, confirmed that investigators had uncovered a “supply chain” of payments linking local criminals to Tehran. “Security forces have done extraordinary work to trace the source of the funding of these criminal elements who’ve been used as tools of the Iranian regime,” Albanese said. He also revealed that the investigation relied heavily on mapping networks of suspects and breaking through encrypted messaging, much of it conducted by ASIO. The Prime Minister, however, has declined to make public the specifics of how Iran allegedly directed the crimes, citing ongoing investigations and the need to ensure fair trials for those already charged.
The accusations against Iran come at a time when Western governments have grown increasingly concerned about Tehran’s covert operations abroad. In the past year alone, security agencies in Britain and Sweden have warned of Iran’s use of criminal proxies to carry out violent attacks, and London has reported disrupting 20 Iran-linked plots since 2022. Last month, a coalition of 14 countries, including the United States and France, condemned what they described as a surge in assassination, kidnapping, and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services.
Australia’s response to the synagogue attack has been swift and resolute. On August 26, 2025, Albanese announced the expulsion of Iranian Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi, giving him 72 hours to leave the country, while three other Iranian diplomats were given a week to depart. This marks the first time since World War II that Australia has expelled an ambassador. “It’s very clear from the advice that we received from ASIO that both the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney and the Adass Israel Synagogue there in Melbourne were arisen from Iran, from the Iran Revolutionary Guard. And that is them working in concert with criminal elements both overseas and here domestically,” Albanese stated.
Iran, for its part, has vehemently denied the allegations. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei called the accusations politically motivated, suggesting they were linked to Australia’s recent recognition of a Palestinian state and its strained relations with Israel. “The Iranian regime is an unpredictable regime, a regime which we have seen is capable of aggression and violence,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong cautioned, urging all Australians in Iran to leave immediately due to the closure of the Australian embassy in Tehran. Australian diplomats, she said, had been discreetly relocated to a third country for their own safety.
For Melbourne’s Jewish community, the attack and its aftermath have left deep scars. Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, noted the chilling effect of such incidents: “The fact that a business is targeted makes every Jewish Australian fearful that they could be next.” At the Adass Israel Synagogue, floral tributes and an Australian flag now stand as somber reminders of the violence that struck their community. Authorities have increased security at a temporary location where the congregation now gathers, and the investigation continues to probe the full extent of the criminal networks involved.
Victoria’s Joint Counter Terrorism Team has described the arson as politically motivated and involving offshore direction. Police have also indicated that the stolen sedan used in the attack was linked to other, unrelated crimes. During a press conference in July, then-deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett of the Australian Federal Police said, “We suspect these criminals worked with criminal associates in Victoria to carry out the arson attack.” She also confirmed that the investigation was coordinated with the Five Eyes intelligence network, which includes Britain, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke emphasized the layered nature of the plot, suggesting that the local perpetrators likely had no knowledge of who ultimately ordered the attack. “You have a series of intermediaries so that people performing different actions don't in fact know who is directing them or don't necessarily know who is directing them,” Burke told ABC Radio.
As the legal process unfolds, Australia’s leaders are grappling with the broader implications of the case—for national security, diplomatic relations, and the safety of minority communities. The events surrounding the Adass Israel Synagogue arson have exposed the vulnerabilities posed by transnational criminal networks and the lengths to which foreign actors may go to sow division and fear. The investigation’s revelations have prompted not only a recalibration of Australia’s diplomatic stance toward Iran but also a renewed commitment to confronting antisemitism and protecting its diverse communities from foreign interference.
In the wake of these events, Melbourne’s Jewish community, and indeed all Australians, are left to reckon with the sobering reality that international conflicts can have devastating consequences far from their points of origin. The story of the Adass Israel Synagogue arson stands as a stark reminder of the global reach of modern threats—and the resilience of those determined to stand against them.
