Giovani Laulu, Younes Ali Younes: AFP to seek public interest immunity claim over information about Adass Israel fire

The Australian Federal Police have flagged plans to fight to keep documents secret as the court cases of two men accused of torching a synagogue continues. Giovani Laulu, 21, and Younes Ali Younes, 20, were charged with offences including arson and reckless conduct endangering life midway through last year after a fire tore through the Adass Israel Synagogue in December 2024. Neither has been required to enter pleas. The pair faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday afternoon as magistrate James Henderson was given an update on how the cases were progressing. Mr Laulu, who was released on bail to live with his mother in December, was seen carrying what appeared to be a $1600 Louis Vuitton man bag, while Mr Ali Younes sported a green prison jumper as he appeared over videolink from a remand centre. A lawyer for the Australian Federal Police told the court the AFP expected to complete their disclosure obligations — the handing over of relevant information to the accused men’s legal teams — by the end of May. She said 2,500 pages of information had already been disclosed, while an additional “eleven hundred” pages were under review. But, the lawyer said, the AFP would be seeking to make a “number of claims” of public interest immunity over certain documents. Public interest immunity claims, if determined to be valid by a court, can restrict the sharing of confidential information deemed prejudicial to the public interest. The court was told there may need to be time set aside for legal arguments over these claims, if challenged by the two men’s lawyers, ahead of a committal hearing expected to run in August. Police allege Mr Laulu, Mr Ali Younes and a third unidentified individual broke into the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea about 4.10am on December 6, 2024. CCTV released by police in May last year captured three hooded figures smash their way into the building, before carrying several red jerry cans inside and setting the building ablaze. The early morning fire is alleged to have caused $20 million of damage to the synagogue and destroyed sacred texts. Two worshippers inside at the time were able to escape the blaze, police allege, although one man received minor burns to his hands. In August last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and ASIO director-general Mike Burgess revealed the intelligence agency had information allegedly linking the fire, and another blaze at Sydney’s Lewis Continental Kitchen in October 2024, to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Mr Burgess said it was alleged the IRGC used a “complex web of proxies to hide its involvement” in incidents targeting Jewish communities in Australia. Mr Laulu is expected to return to court on August 12 while Mr Younes will next appear on June 16.