The man identified as having deposited human feces in the lobby of Sydney's Salesforce Tower has been revealed as Mohammad Qais Niazy, a figure with a documented history in criminal gangs and previous encounters with law enforcement. Niazy, 35, was arrested and charged on Tuesday evening following the incident, which occurred earlier that day.
Police were alerted around 2:15 p.m. on Monday after workers at the Circular Quay skyscraper discovered the offensive act near the elevators. Niazy, who hails from Sydney's western suburbs, was apprehended at the Circular Quay ferry wharf around 11:50 p.m. Tuesday and subsequently taken to Day Street police station, where bail was denied.
He faced court on Wednesday charged with behaving in an offensive manner in or near a public place, destroying or damaging property valued at less than $2,000, stalking or intimidation, and breaching bail. Niazy pleaded guilty to the first three charges, with the bail breach also established. He was then sent for a mental health assessment before returning to police custody.
Niazy's criminal history includes being considered a core member of the 'Afghani Murderers' gang, also known as the Afghani Mafia Family (AMF), which reportedly emerged around 2013-2014. He was also previously associated with the Hells Angels motorcycle club. His notoriety was amplified by social media posts made while on bail for firearms charges, which depicted him with large sums of cash and appearing to snort white powder.
Niazy's past legal entanglements include an arrest in April 2012 over a public place shooting. Although initially facing serious weapons offenses in 2014, including possessing a shortened firearm, these charges were later dropped after he was deemed unfit to plead due to mental illness. He was later charged with further weapons offenses in 2015, leading to a prison sentence of at least one year and nine months, served from June 2017.
Born an Afghan national, Niazy's family fled to Pakistan. He was reportedly held captive for three years as a child before his parents, believing him dead, were granted humanitarian visas to Australia in 2002. Niazy joined them in Australia in June 2005. However, in January 2016, then-Immigration Minister Peter Dutton canceled Niazy's permanent residency visa on character grounds, with expectations of his deportation upon resolution of his court matters. Despite this, following his release from prison, he was held in immigration detention facilities. His protection visa application was refused in January 2020, though the Administrative Appeals Tribunal had previously found him to be a refugee in February 2019, citing severe mental health issues, including schizophrenia.
More recently, Niazy was fined in September 2024 for possessing a prohibited drug. Three months later, he received an 18-month community corrections order for break and enter and property destruction. In January of the previous year, he was convicted in his absence and fined for entering a casino as an excluded person. The following month, he was jailed for a minimum of four months for a domestic violence-related assault and stalking, a sentence later reduced to a 15-month community corrections order on appeal in December.
Salesforce Tower, a 55-story, 263-meter building, is Sydney's tallest commercial building. The software giant Salesforce occupies 13 floors of the structure, which was completed in late 2002. The building's occupancy rate has been seen as an indicator of Sydney's office market health. Inquiries were made to Salesforce's public relations department regarding the incident, access protocols, and security measures.