The father of a Queensland man shot dead by police has told an inquest that officers declined his attempts to get his son mental health treatment three times before he was released from jail.
Raghe Mohamed Abdi was killed by police in December 2020 on a motorway south of Brisbane after he moved towards them with a knife while shouting “Allahu Akhbar”, months after being released from prison.
An inquest into his death heard that due to his Islamic beliefs he had been concerned that if he engaged with the court system he would live in an afterlife of “hellfire” and be punished by god.
His father, Mohammed Abdi, told the inquest that he challenged his son’s beliefs and engaged with a “moderate” Islamic scholar while his son was in prison. He tried to get his son mental health support, but police declined the requests, the inquest heard.
Abdi said one officer told him police had “one way of dealing with criminals and that is to put them through the legal system”.
Raghe was later shot dead by police on the Logan Motorway.
Police believe Raghe was responsible for the earlier murder of an elderly Brisbane couple, Zoe and Maurice Antill, who were found dead in their home, the inquest has heard.
The inquest heard that Queensland police had initially said at the time of the shooting that they were treating the events as a “terrorism incident”.
Raghe first became known to counter-terrorism police in March 2018, when they identified him as a part of a group of radicalised youths who they believed had plans to join a terrorist organisation overseas years earlier, the inquest heard.
Police later arrested the 22-year-old after he attempted to fly from Brisbane to Somalia on a one-way ticket on 7 May 2019. But the charges were later dropped over a lack of evidence.
Abdi said Raghe’s mental health deteriorated after he was arrested on a later fraud charge on 12 June 2019, for attempting to sell an $800 phone for $2,000.
He told the inquest he regularly visited his son during his 15 months in prison and was concerned about his “fixation” and “obsession” with death, punishment and “hellfire”.
Police suggested members of the force’s deradicalisation program meet with Abdi but the meeting didn’t go ahead.
Abdi requested the officers meet with his son outside a prison setting due to his fears he’d be targeted by other prisoners but the officers refused, the inquest heard.
Det Supt Anthony Conway said Raghe was not obliged to engage with deradicalisation programs, the inquest heard.
“It’s a voluntary process. There’s a requirement for the individual to sign up and agree to participate in the program,” he said.
The inquest heard Raghe was initially doing well after his release from prison on 3 September 2020, and had been spending time with his sisters and going to the gym.
But months later he started to withdraw after being knocked back from several jobs due to his charges and began spending a lot of time in his room.
“After he came out of jail, he was hearing voices,” Abdi said. “In late November, he was showing signs of distress.”
Raghe was under police surveillance when he had a bank account closed in November, a few months after his release from prison.
The day before he was shot, Raghe removed a GPS tracking device he was required to wear as part of his bail conditions, the inquest heard.
Abdi, an asylum seeker and former aid worker who fled Somalia, said he was living a “slow death” after his son’s actions and suffered anxiety as a result.
“I was attacked by a terrorist myself [in Somalia]. The person who attacked me believed that I was preaching Christianity. I was a devoted Muslim,” he said.
“I sent [Raghe] to a private school … Most of the time I was a single father working two jobs to pay the school fees.
“That hope got tarnished and dashed when the same things I left behind [and] the persecution I left came to me.”
The inquest continues.
