YahooNews
November 15, 2013, 4:14 pm
A self-styled sheikh who sent offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers has faced court in connection to the murder of a woman.
Man Haron Monis, 59, fronted Burwood Local Court charged with being an accessory before and after the fact to the murder of a woman allegedly stabbed and set alight in a western Sydney stairwell earlier this year.
Monis, also known as Sheikh Haron, was arrested along with a woman who earlier on Friday was charged with murder.
Dressed in black tracksuit pants and with a beard, Monis didn't apply for bail and it was formally refused by Magistrate Christopher Longley.
Emergency workers found the woman's body in the Werrington apartment block on April 21 after responding to a fire.
The 30-year-old had allegedly been stabbed multiple times and set alight.
Police say the three people knew each other.
Amirah Droudis, who is believed to be the partner of Monis, was charged with murdering Noleen Hayson Pal.
She sat quietly in the dock, wearing a black blouse and with her long dark hair out.
Her lawyer said she wouldn't apply for bail and it was formally refused.
The pair will appear in Penrith Local Court on November 22.
Monis was previously sentenced to 300 hours of community service and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond for 12 counts of using a postal service to cause offence.
Droudis was sentenced to a two-year bond for aiding and abetting him.
Monis had sent offensive letters to the grieving families of seven soldiers killed in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2009.
The self-employed spiritual adviser and astrologer also wrote to the family of trade official Craig Senger, who was killed in the 2009 Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta.
In the letters, Monis likened soldiers to murderers and killers, and in one letter said a digger was going to hell.
Commando Pte.Luke Worsley parents told by Islamic swine "can't be proud" of his son who "died for nothing"
From May 25 2009