Almost three days to the minute after he lost a High Court bid to overturn a conviction against him, self-styled sheikh Man Haron Monis took 17 people hostage in the heart of Sydney's legal precinct. 
 
 Shortly before 9.50am last Friday, the court had dealt a blow to Monis' long-running legal battle to overturn his conviction for sending "grossly offensive" letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. 
 
 At 9.45am on Monday, police were called to an unfolding siege at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place, metres from the Law Courts Building in Phillip Street where Chief Justice Robert French and Justice Stephen Gageler had refused an application by Monis to hear a fresh constitutional challenge to the charges against him. 
 
 Monis was dead just under 17 hours later. So too were two hostages who were taken to hospital after an exchange of gunfire at the cafe just after 2am on Tuesday. 
 
 Monis had been consumed by the fight over his conviction for sending the offensive letters. 
 
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 "This pen is my gun, and these words are my bullets," he had said outside a Sydney court after he was charged over the letters. 
 
 "I'll fight with these weapons against oppression to promote peace." 
 
 In August last year, he had reluctantly pleaded guilty to using a postal service to send the "harassing or offensive" letters to the grieving families of the soldiers as well as the family of an Austrade official killed in Indonesia. 
 
 But this was not before he fought the validity of the charges all the way to the High Court, arguing the offence in the Criminal Code infringed the implied freedom of communication on political and governmental matters in the Commonwealth constitution. 
 
 Monis claimed the letters were his own version of a "condolence card" or "flower basket" and he only sought to persuade the families to oppose Australia's military involvement in Afghanistan. 
 
 When the High Court handed down its ruling in February last year, it was split three-three on the issue - and so it was bound to uphold an earlier, unanimous, decision of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal that the charges against him were constitutionally valid. 
 
 Chief Justice French and Justices Kenneth Hayne and Dyson Heydon would have ruled in Monis' favour but Justices Susan Crennan, Susan Kiefel and Virginia Bell would have dismissed his case. 
 
 When Monis lost that battle, and had to stand trial for the offences, he pleaded guilty to all 12 charges against him. He escaped a prison sentence - the maximum penalty is two years behind bars - and was sentenced instead to 300 hours of community service and placed on a good behaviour bond for the "offensive and deplorable letters". 
 
 His co-accused and girlfriend, Amirah Droudis, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting him. 
 
 But Monis fought on. On Friday, the 50-year-old's legal team, led by Sydney barrister Guy Reynolds, SC, asked the High Court to hear the constitutional issue again because the court had been split down the middle on the issue. 
 
 "Here, of course, there are special circumstances because of the three-three split," Mr Reynolds told the court shortly after it convened in Sydney at 9.30am. 
 
 Mr Reynolds argued that an even split meant "no principle or precedent" was established in the earlier case brought on Monis' behalf in the High Court. 
 
 "If it was four-three, I would be in the position of having a precedent against me," Mr Reynolds said. 
 
 Chief Justice French and Justice Gageler were not persuaded. 
 
 "In our opinion it suffices to say that, having regard to the history of the matter, we do not think it appropriate to make [the order sought to hear the case]. The application ... will be dismissed," Chief Justice French said. 
 
 Monis heard the result of the case late on Friday, and took a gun into Martin Place on Monday. 
 
 It is an irony that Monis was incensed by a conviction that resulted in a mere 300 hours of community service. 
 
 At the time of the siege, he was on bail in relation to two separate and serious cases that could have seen him imprisoned for decades. 
 
 He was charged in November 2013 with being an accessory before and after the fact to the murder of his ex-wife Noleen Hayson Pal, who was stabbed and set alight in a Werrington apartment block. Droudis has been charged with the murder. 
 
 And this year, Monis was charged by sex crimes squad detectives with more than 40 indecent and sexual assault charges relating to his time spent as a self-proclaimed "spiritual healer". ||||| Monis had conviction for sending offensive letters to relatives of Australian victims of terrorism and troops killed in Afghanistan 
 
 Until his entry into the global media spotlight as the shadowy figure at the centre of the Sydney siege, Man Haron Monis had long been viewed as a fringe figure in Sydney’s Islamic community, his self-radicalisation rooted in grievances against the Australian government and increasing marginalisation among his peers. 
 
 The self-proclaimed spiritual healer had achieved a degree of notoriety as the author of “grossly offensive” letters sent to taunt parents and relatives of Australians killed by extremism in Indonesia as well as troops who lost their lives in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2009. 
 
 Well known to the Australian police, he had been consumed by his conviction for the offence, unsuccessfully challenging the conviction in the high court last year and making several vehement and erratic public statements claiming to be innocent. 
 
 Monis lost another bid to have the matter heard before the high court on Friday. 
 
 He also faced numerous charges relating to his time working as a “spiritual healer” – including 22 counts of aggravated sexual assault and 14 counts of aggravated indecent assault – and had been bailed for allegedly being an accessory to the killing of his former wife. 
 
 When Monis, who was also known as Mohammad Hassan Manteghi, appeared in court in October over the sex assault allegations, police charged him with 40 additional offences. It was alleged that he had advised a 27-year-old woman to visit him at his business in Wentworthville in 2002 after she contacted him through a “Spiritual Consultation” ad in a community newspaper. 
 
 He was charged last year with being an accessory to the murder of his 30-year-old former wife Noleen Hayson Pal, a mother-of-two who was allegedly stabbed to death and set alight in April 2013. 
 
 Iranian-born, Monis sought asylum in Australia in 1996, telling ABC News in 2001 he fled after falling foul of the Iranian regime, which he said had placed his wife and children under house arrest. “I can say they are hostage,” he said at the time, having reportedly given himself the title Sheikh Haron. 
 
 As recently as last week on a website he used both to defend and promote himself, he announced that he had converted from Shia to Sunni Islam and pledged his allegiance to the caliphate declared by the militant group Islamic State. That website was shut down as Monday’s siege developed, and police asked media outlets to refrain from giving him a platform as he held 17 hostages in the Lindt cafe in Martin Place. 
 
 Sydney Shia leaders had apparently urged federal police to probe his claim to be a leading cleric, while he was ignored by the Sunni community. He had no links to the Islamic State terrorist group, and despite his criminal past was not seen as a likely exponent of the group’s ideology. 
 
 One upshot, some would argue, is that he fits bill of a classic lone wolf – a profile that had been much feared by security officials. Monis is believed to have been a self-starter, who had attached himself to the virulent worldview of Isis. His self-radicalisation appeared to be rooted in grievances against the government and fueled by his increasing marginalisation. 
 
 Earlier this month, Monis had posted on his website that Shia muslims were rejectionists – a key message of extremist Sunnis in the Middle East. 
 
 But there were other hints on the web post that Monis had become radicalised: a rambling October letter he penned to the Muslim community rejected the “new religion” of moderate Islam. ‘This pen is my gun and these words are my bullets, I fight by these weapons against oppression to promote peace,’ he wrote. 
 
 An image on the website appears to show Monis wearing the same headband that photographs suggest he donned during the Martin Place siege, reading: “We are ready to sacrifice for you, O Muhammad.” 
 
 Shortly after Tony Abbott’s government was elected in September last year, Monis sent the prime minister a letter inviting him to a live debate in which he said he would prove that “Australia and Australians will be attacked” as a result of the country’s participation in the war in Afghanistan. 
 
 Manny Conditsis, a lawyer who represented Monis at one point, has decribed his former client as an isolated figure who might have felt that he had nothing to lose, “hence participating in something as desperate and outrageous as this”. 
 
 “His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness,” Conditsis told ABC news. ||||| Sydney siege: Man behind Martin Place stand-off was Iranian Man Haron Monis, who had violent criminal history 
 
 Updated 
 
 The gunman killed during the siege at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Sydney's Martin Place was an Iranian cleric with a violent criminal past. 
 
 Man Haron Monis, who was granted political asylum in Australia in 2001, was on bail for a string of violent offences, including being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. 
 
 He was also facing more than 50 sexual and indecent assault charges and had a conviction for sending abusive letters to families of deceased Australian soldiers. 
 
 Police negotiated with Monis, via hostages, for 16 hours on Monday before officers stormed the building at 2:00am (AEDT) on Tuesday. 
 
 He entered the cafe about 9:45am (AEDT) on Monday and held 17 staff and customers inside throughout the day. 
 
 Prime Minister Tony Abbott revealed more about Monis' background in his press briefing this morning. 
 
 What we do know is that the perpetrator was well known to State and Commonwealth authorities. He had a long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability. We know that he sent offensive letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan and was found guilty of offences related to this. We also know that he posted graphic extremist material online. As the siege unfolded yesterday, he sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the ISIL death cult. 
 
 His former lawyer, Manny Conditsis, told the ABC that Monis was an isolated figure who had acted alone. 
 
 Do you know more about this story? Email investigations@abc.net.au. 
 
 "He came to Australia in the late 1990s as I understand it, obtained political asylum in 2001. He fled Iran because he was in fear of his life from the regime at that time," Mr Conditsis told ABC News Breakfast. 
 
 "Monis personally faced charges as a result of writing letters to the families of deceased Australian soldiers. 
 
 "They were dealt with in 2013. Subsequent to that he was charged with accessory before and after the fact in relation to the murder of his former spouse. Eventually he got bail. 
 
 "I appeared for him in December of 2013 when he obtained bail essentially based on a case that was presented by the prosecution at the time. It had significant weaknesses in it. I think that had a significant impact on him getting bail at that time." 
 
 More recently, he was charged with more than 50 allegations of indecent and sexual assault. Police allege the assaults took place in 2002, when Monis was a self-proclaimed "spiritual healer" operating out of premises in Wentworthville. 
 
 It is alleged that Monis placed ads in local newspapers offering "spiritual consultation". He claimed to be an expert in astrology, numerology, meditation and black magic. 
 
 But it was Monis' ongoing legal battle over his conviction for sending offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers between 2007 and 2009 that may have tipped him over the edge. 
 
 The siege followed an unsuccessful, last-ditch attempt in the High Court to have the charges overturned. 
 
 Monis was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond for the "offensive and deplorable letters" sent with the help of his girlfriend Amirah Droudis. 
 
 They were sent to the families of Private Luke Worsley and Lance Corporal Jason Marks, who were killed in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008. 
 
 He also sent a letter in 2009 to the family of the Austrade official Craig Senger, who was killed in the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2007. 
 
 Monis claimed the letters were his own version of a "flower basket" or "condolence card". 
 
 He challenged the validity of the charges in the High Court, arguing they were political. 
 
 But he lost and at trial, pleaded guilty to all 12 charges against him in August 2013. 
 
 Mr Conditsis represented Monis last year when he was charged with being accessory to the murder of ex-wife Noleen Hayson Pal, who was stabbed and set alight outside a western Sydney unit. 
 
 "Knowing he was on bail for very serious offences, knowing that while he was in custody some terrible things happened to him, I thought he may consider that he's got nothing to lose," he said. 
 
 "Hence participating in something as desperate and outrageous as this." 
 
 He said Monis claimed to have suffered poor treatment while in prison. 
 
 "He was put through let's say some very unpleasant events, involving matters of excrement over himself and his cell," he said. 
 
 Mr Conditsis said the public could be assured the siege was not the work of an organised terrorist group. 
 
 "This was a one-off random individual," he said. 
 
 "It was not a concerted terrorism event or act. 
 
 "It was a damaged-goods individual who did something outrageous." 
 
 Topics: islam, religion-and-beliefs, community-and-society, law-crime-and-justice, sydney-2000 
 
 First posted ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Australian PM Tony Abbott: "We do have to ask ourselves the question - could it have been prevented?" 
 
 Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has questioned why the gunman in the Sydney cafe siege was not on the country's terror watch list. 
 
 He said the government would examine why Man Haron Monis had been on bail. 
 
 Mr Abbott paid tribute to the two hostages who died in Monday's siege, describing them as "good people". 
 
 The two hostages and Monis died as police commandos stormed the cafe in Martin Place early on Tuesday morning, ending the 16-hour siege. 
 
 An investigation has been launched into the police operation. 
 
 Police are also investigating the motives of Monis - an Iranian refugee who faced multiple criminal charges - and how he got a gun. 
 
 At a press conference, Mr Abbott said: "How can someone who has had such a long and chequered history not be on the appropriate watch lists and how can someone like that be entirely at large. 
 
 "These are questions that we need to look at carefully." 
 
 Image copyright EPA/ Rex Features Image caption Sydney lawyer Katrina Dawson (left) and cafe manager Tori Johnson were killed in the siege 
 
 However, he added that it was "possible" that the siege would have taken place even if Monis had been on a watch list. 
 
 "The level of control that would be necessary to prevent people from going about their daily life would be very, very high indeed," he said. 
 
 The victims have been named as cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34 and Sydney lawyer Katrina Dawson, 38. 
 
 In Martin Place, people have been arriving to sign condolence books and leave flowers in their memory. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The moment police stormed the cafe 
 
 Analysis: Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent 
 
 From Woolwich to Ottawa and now to Sydney, there is a growing list of individuals carrying out attacks in the name of global jihadism yet apparently unconnected to any organisation or co-ordinated plot. 
 
 Rarely are the perpetrators unknown to the authorities. Monis was a known extremist facing criminal charges. Michael Adebolajo, one of the two Woolwich murderers in 2013, was also a known extremist who had been imprisoned in Kenya. 
 
 So why were these men allowed to wander around cities, free to pick up knives or guns? The answer comes down to priorities. In open democracies, police and intelligence services do not have the manpower and resources to follow every suspect on their lists around the clock. Inevitably they have to prioritise from an ever-changing list. 
 
 A radicalising event such as civilians being killed in a drone strike somewhere in the world can draw more people towards a course of violent action. Often that person may keep their thoughts to themselves and not communicate them in ways that can be tracked. 
 
 In an age of so-called "lone wolf" attacks, prioritising suspects is an area the authorities in many countries are going to need to get better at. 
 
 Four other people, including a police officer, were injured. The officer has been discharged, while the other three were in a stable condition, police said. 
 
 Central Sydney was put in lockdown on Monday morning as the gunman entered the Lindt Chocolat Cafe and seized 17 hostages. 
 
 Five hostages managed to sprint to safety on Monday afternoon. Several more escaped early on Tuesday, as commandos stormed the cafe. 
 
 How the 16-hour Sydney siege unfolded 
 
 1. At 09:45 on Monday local time (22:45 GMT Sunday) police are called to the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney following reports of an armed robbery. It soon emerges a gunman is holding a number of people hostage. 
 
 At on Monday local time (22:45 GMT Sunday) police are called to the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney following reports of an armed robbery. It soon emerges a gunman is holding a number of people hostage. 2. Between 16:00-17:00 , three men, then two women, sprint to safety from the cafe's side door - a fire exit. 
 
 Between , three men, then two women, sprint to safety from the cafe's side door - a fire exit. 3. Just after 02:00 on Tuesday, a loud bang is heard from the cafe and special operations officers advance towards the side door. 
 
 Just after on Tuesday, a loud bang is heard from the cafe and special operations officers advance towards the side door. 4. More hostages escape, running to safety on Elizabeth Street. 
 
 More hostages escape, running to safety on Elizabeth Street. 5. Moments later, commandos storm the cafe via a number of entrances. The remaining hostages escape. 
 
 Moments later, commandos storm the cafe via a number of entrances. The remaining hostages escape. 6. Police officially confirm the end of the siege at 02:45 local time. They later report the deaths of three people, including the gunman. 
 
 At a news conference on Tuesday, NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn would not say whether Monis had shot the two hostages himself. 
 
 Nor would she confirm reports that Mr Johnson was shot when he grappled with Monis. But she said all the hostages had "acted courageously". 
 
 Asked why police stormed the cafe, Commissioner Burn would say only that "shots were heard and an emergency action plan was activated". 
 
 She said it was "extremely important" she did not comment on events in detail while the investigation is under way. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption PM Tony Abbott and his wife Margie also presented flowers 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Two hostages were killed and four people injured as the siege came to a violent end 
 
 On Tuesday evening, a crime scene perimeter remained up around the cafe, but police said all roads would be re-opened by Wednesday morning. 
 
 Police have promised more officers on the street for the next three weeks. 
 
 At the scene: Wendy Frew, BBC News Online, Australia editor 
 
 At Christmas time in Sydney, people come to Martin Place to see the giant Christmas tree. This year they have come to see a sea of flowers laid in memory of the victims of this week's cafe shooting. 
 
 Hundreds of bouquets have been laid on the pedestrian plaza a block away from where the siege took place. 
 
 Well-wishers like Maureen Sharma and Ruza Fisher have come to sign a condolence book and to lay flowers. The two young office employees who work nearby wanted to pay their respects. 
 
 "I came to work this morning and could not stop crying," said Ms Sharma. "It touched me more than I had expected." Ms Fisher said her stomach was in knots. "I am starting to well up… It was such a waste of lives." 
 
 'Unstable' 
 
 Monis, a self-styled Muslim cleric, sought asylum in Australia in 1996. He had a history of religiously inspired activism, but officials say there is as yet no evidence his actions were linked to international Islamist movements. 
 
 He was convicted of sending offensive letters to the families of deceased Australian soldiers in 2009. 
 
 In 2013, he was charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife, and given bail. 
 
 He also faced more than 40 sexual and indecent assault charges. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Monis, well known to the Australian police, was facing a raft of criminal charges 
 
 Monis had "vehemently denied" the assault and accessory to murder charges, his former lawyer told the BBC. 
 
 He "believed he was being victimised" for his "lobbying against the government", and had alleged that he was tortured while in custody, Manny Conditsis said. 
 
 According to Australian media, a High Court had dismissed Monis' appeal against his previous convictions on Friday. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption The 16-hour siege saw a major police presence deployed in the heart of Sydney 
 
 A church service was held at Sydney's St Mary Cathedral on Tuesday to mourn the victims. 
 
 Archbishop Anthony Fisher said the "heart of our city is broken by the deaths of two innocents", and urged Australians not to be caught up in "violence and its cycle of recrimination". 
 
 The Australian National Imams Council issued a statement saying it was "deeply saddened by the tragic end to the siege with the loss of life. 
 
 "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those killed and to the hostages who suffered the trauma of the siege."
– As Australia mourns two hostages killed in a Sydney cafe yesterday, many are wondering what gunman Man Haron Monis was doing on the streets in the first place. The Iranian-born cleric, who was killed when police commandos stormed the cafe, was on bail for around 50 counts of sexual and indecent assault and for charges of being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. The 31-year-old mother of two was stabbed repeatedly and set on fire with the use of lighter fluid last April, allegedly by Monis' girlfriend. The crime happened in an apartment stairwell. More: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the government will look into why the 50-year-old was out on bail and why he did not appear on the country's terrorist watch list, the BBC reports. "How can someone who has had such a long and checkered history not be on the appropriate watch lists, and how can someone like that be entirely at large in the community?" he wondered at a press conference today. "These are questions that we need to look at carefully and calmly and methodically." Just three days before he walked into the cafe with a gun and took 17 people hostage, Monis had failed in an attempt to overturn a conviction for sending "grossly offensive" letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. The country's High Court rejected his application to hear a fresh constitutional challenge to the charges against him, for which he was sentenced to 300 hours of community service. Monis, who declared himself to be a sheikh and a "spiritual healer," was seen as a "fringe figure" in Sydney's Islamic community, according to a Guardian profile. Shia Muslim leaders had asked police to probe his claims to be a leading cleric and last week, he announced on his website that he had converted to Sunni Islam and pledged allegiance to ISIS. The lawyer who represented Monis in the murder case tells the Australian Broadcasting Company that his client, who came to the country as a refugee in 1996, may have thought he had "nothing to lose," hence "participating in something as desperate and outrageous as this." He says that while in prison, Monis suffered some "very unpleasant events, involving matters of excrement over himself and his cell," and he is certain that the siege was the act of a "one-off random individual," not an organized terrorist group.