Dr Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, the attorney general of the UAE, said over the weekend that investigators had traced the ideological and professional background of the 29-year-old suspect, Omani national Hammam al-Hammami, and that their findings indicated his "drift towards extremism and terrorism" began while he was studying at RMIT University in 2017.
The attorney general alleged al-Hammami had said that while studying in Melbourne he regularly attended a mosque affiliated with RMIT, and through those visits became acquainted with people associated with a centre known as "MyCentre". He allegedly said the centre was managed by a man known as "Abu Hamza", but did not state whether the suspect had ever met him.
There has been no allegation that anyone at the centre was involved in radicalising al-Hammami, kept in contact with him, or knew his intentions before the 30 September flight.
On Sunday night, MyCentre's leader, Samir Mohtadi, who also goes by Abu Hamza, appeared in a four-minute video on the centre's Facebook page. He refers to Islamic texts on the virtues of staying silent when attacked, but makes no reference to the alleged hijack attempt, the attorney general's statement or al-Hammami.
"You'll find those who are righteous you'll always find have been attacked, abused, accused, killed, imprisoned, and this is the way it is," Mohtadi says in the video. He cites the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, saying: "I'm not going to speak to anyone" and "I'm going to fast from talking".
"There are circumstances, my beloved brothers and respected sisters, regardless how much you explain yourself to people, that's it, they're fixated with their ideas and that's it, you can't change them," he said. "So the best thing, sometimes, is not to say anything."
Mohtadi has been contacted for comment. RMIT has confirmed al-Hammami studied engineering at the university, but left Australia before completing the qualification. He subsequently underwent flight training.