‘You Have 15 Minutes:’ Sydney Siege Hostage Reveals Lindt Café Experience

Seline Win Pe has revealed more details about the Sydney Siege. The former Martin Place hostage has said that the Lindt Café gunman told her she had minutes to live.

Win Pe has said on “60 Minutes” that Man Haron Monis informed her she had only minutes left in her life. Win Pe told veteran reporter Liz Hayes that she had pleaded the gunman not to shoot her while telling him that she only had her mother. Win Pe, who struggled to hold her tears back, said that her words had no influence on the Islamic State sympathiser. “He looked me straight in the eyes and said ‘you have 15 minutes’,” The Daily Telegraph quotes Win Pe who is interviewed in a series with survivors of the Martin Place siege.

Monis held 18 hostages for 17 hours in the siege which eventually took lives of café manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson. The gunman demanded to have the IS flag delivered to him. Survivors such Harriette Denny and Fiona Ma have also been interviewed by Hayes. Other survivors like Jarrod Morton Hoffman and Joel Herat are also expected to be interviewed in the series. Denny earlier said that the hostages had suffered psychological distress during the siege. She said that the hostages had the constant fear that they would be executed by the gunman. She said that the hostages had to beg for their lives. Heavily armed police eventually stormed the café building in the early hours of Dec 17 and dramatically killed the gunman.

Another survivor Marcia Mikhael is believed to have grabbed a $400,000 deal for an interview with Channel 7’s Melissa Doyle. Her lawyer Jason Arraj said that she had a “wonderful story” to tell but it would be an “insult” to share the experience for a four-digit figure. Mikhael apparently wants to use the money for her foundation. However, the lawyer failed to clarify what the foundation was all about. Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett posted a number of tweets against the former hostages to suggest that there should be a law to ban “exploitation.”

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@IBTimes.com.au