they deserve nothing less and we'd be making the world a better place. I was lucky; I got a second chance. Ghanem's convictions for his participation in the attacks that were the subject of the first trial, however, were confirmed. I have no intention of attempting to justify my sentences. . The following is an edited extract of The Pursuit of Justice by Michael Finnane, QC: All three accused were Australian citizens whose parents had come from Lebanon. But to this day Finnane is regularly asked about the Skaf case, sometimes by strangers, at social functions and on other unexpected occasions. 3. It seemed clear to me that these men were sending out a message to the community in Sydney. Those involved in these crimes committed them between 10 August and 30 August 2000 on three separate occasions. The gang's ringleader, Skaf, denied his role in the crimes despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt and showed no remorse even after he was sentenced to 55 years in prison. They found him dead in his apartment in a building in the same area, while Abboud died in an ambulance while she was transporting him to Nearby hospital. From the outset, the City of Bankstown in south-western Sydneys sprawling migrant belt is a picture of multiculturalism. Glass was blown out blown out with such a high velocity that there are shards of glass embedded in some of my furniture, almost dagger-like, she says. Skaf and the members of this gang clearly wanted public recognition for what they had done. trot Prospective jurors were told the trial might last a month and would involve allegations that the three accused men, with several others, sexually assaulted two young women against their will. The last person to plead guilty was a friend of Mohammed Skaf. 'There were other sexual assault cases I heard, some of children, some of adult women,' Finnane writes. The main activities of Arab gangs in Australia are narcotics and weapons trafficking, extortion, prostitution, car theft and money laundering. Its just amazing to see how much traction it got, Diana Abbas, director of Impact Lebanon, says. Source: AAP. A lot of the racism against Lebanese people in Australia however dates to before 9/11. It was about 9pm at this stage. Significant numbers of their families served in Australian forces during World War I. I also told the jury that 'this is not a court of morals' and explained that they might not approve of the conduct of some of the participants because they thought they were acting immorally, but that was not the question at all. To the streets, thats where., Australian-Lebanese filmmaker George Basha agrees. Single expats: 1.773 USD. She was then dumped at a train station after being hosed down. [7], Last edited on 24 February 2023, at 19:36, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Rising crime in northern Bekaa Valley hurting Hezbollah", "THE WORLD'S LARGEST DRUG FIELD -- (BY DENNIS EISENBERG) (Extension of Remarks - July 27, 1990)", "Schattenseiten der Einwanderergesellschaft - Brutale Familienbande", "Miri-Clan: Eine Familie, tief verstrickt ins Verbrechen - DIE WELT", "Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area of South America", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lebanese_mafia&oldid=1141378811, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 19:36. He and the others who accompanied him then dragged the unfortunate girl to the middle of the park where they pulled of her clothes and proceeded to run their hands over her body. However, data also suggests that the city has been experiencing a steady rise in crime rates for the past three years. With Covid-19 restrictions preventing Lebanese Australians from holding in-person activities, such as fundraising events and protests, local activists like Maakasa are relying on Instagram and Facebook to generate support. I remanded all of them in custody. This was evidence of incriminating phone calls between him and Chami. The most common crimes involve physical altercations, trespassing, burglary, and damaging public or private property. Murder was not in his mind; terrifying people generally was.'. All rights reserved. I continue to hold that view. The largest proportion of the Lebanese community in Australia, whether it includes those who were born overseas or also those who claim Lebanese ancestry, now lives . The Australian Embassy in Beirut, opened in 1967, was the third Australian Embassy to be established in the Middle East. Our initial goal was 10,000. The first community of Lebanese in Australia were Maronite Christians, quickly followed by a large Muslim community. Russia entertainment In my time there, Australia gave millions [to aid efforts in Lebanon], he says, explaining that Australian funds are transferred directly through the head offices of UN agencies or humanitarian organisations. 'What caused the unprecedented public interest in the Skaf trials, what set them apart from all other sexual assault trials, was the repeated attacks in a short time frame by a gang with a carefully planned strategy,' Finnane writes. The children of refugees who fled Lebanon's civil war for peaceful Australia in the 1970s form a. majority of Australian militants fighting in the Middle East, according to about a dozen counter-terrorism officials, security experts and Muslim community members. 5 Brian Lipscomb Each of them also denied agreeing at any time, in the van or in the park, to oral sex with these men and the men in the red van. It came as a surprise to me that nothing was going to be presented to me by counsel for Bilal Skaf. Manorama Online from However, when the van finally stopped, it was at a park in Greenacre. There is no concept in our law that there is a category of person called loose women who are deemed somehow to consent and certainly there is no law that merely because a young woman might give an indication that she was friendly with someone and didn't protest too much when they were laying hands on her that she therefore was consenting to anything. For Melbourne-born Alia Melki, that urge to help hit her as immediately as the blast itself. And these guys are well armed. The number of perpetrators of these crimes has been climbing steadily in recent years, with around six thousand imprisoned in 2021, compared to around half of this number who were imprisoned for. He agreed that his client showed no remorse and no contrition. Pluto Press, Annandale NSW. world News, Hosted byByohostingMost Recommended Web Hosting for complains, abuse, advertising contact:o f f i c e @byohosting.com, Video- A crime shocked the Lebanese in Australia.. New facts about the murder of Abboud Yazbek, Two-season contract: Xavier Simoneau could become the Canadians next little plague, Irma Serrano, La Tigresa, dies at the age of 89, reports the Association of Interpreters of Mexico. A GANG war over drug turf that has been simmering for two decades has erupted into a series of public shootings that has turned Fairfield in western Sydney into Australia's most dangerous suburb. Not one of them showed that fear of criminal proceedings or of jail was ever in their minds. Little is known regarding the health and lifestyle behaviours of Australians of Lebanese ethnicity. She was able to identify Bilal Skaf because he made a point of shoving his face close to hers and saying, 'I'm Sam's brother, Sam.'. politics It is a common matter during the process of sentencing criminal offenders that their counsel would present psychological evidence, sometimes psychiatric evidence and other evidence to create as strong a subjective case for the offender as could be presented. "(Ghazal) said on the show that if he . His counsel acknowledged the force of what I had said but again said that he would be presenting no evidence. A number of family members of the gang members, other than the Skafs, gave evidence and it seemed to me that they were decent, honourable people, who were troubled about the criminal involvement of these young men. Five computers were stolen along with the servers, Lebanese TV channel LBCI reported. The four men in this other car all raped this unfortunate young girl, who was then hosed down until she was soaking wet and forced out of the car that she was in near the Catholic Club at Lidcombe. The first found that Middle-Eastern Australians reported more discrimination compared with non-Middle-Eastern Australians. 'I have thought of this over the years,' Finane writes. International The identity of the four men in the red van has never properly been revealed. Following this, the Crown prosecutor made a closing address dealing with all aspects of the case and putting forward arguments as to why there should be convictions in each case. At the time, Mohammed Skaf was still a schoolboy and attended the same school as the victim, to whom he was known as 'Sam'. Criminal organizations however often transcend religious and cultural barriers, with members of the Sunni communities all involved in the same criminal organizations.[3]. This article (a transcribed speech by former Australian Police Detective Tim Priest) gives an important look at why there was "white riot" on the Cronulla beaches. By The main difference is that Greeks & Italians want to live in Australia under Australian laws and love our way of life, they mix with Australian's, they want their kids to and they great people. A 44-year-old woman killed two Lebanese residing in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia. Lebanese organized crime syndicates generally are active . None of these young women will ever forget their experience at the hands of this gang.'. The Ones That Didnt Make It: Australia-Bound Refugees Languish in Indonesia, Circle Sentencing: Alternative Justice in Australia, Wildfires Scorch Australia As Temperatures Reach Record Highs, Nelson Mandelas Extraordinary Life: An Interactive Timeline, How Did Gaddafi Die? Criminals are coming together from a really diverse range of backgrounds to do bad things together. Nevertheless he acknowledges Middle Eastern organized crime in the city is not going to go away and more research is needed. There were a series of instances of forced oral intercourse by each of the accused men and H, as well as Y and the men in the red van. One of the dead was Sarkis Abboud, 61 years old, and the second was his friend, Tony Yazbek, two years younger. What they were asked to decide was whether these three men, or any one of them, had committed the criminal offences with which they had been charged and they could only decide the accused had committed those offences, or any of them, if they were unanimously satisfied of that beyond reasonable doubt. When I commenced the summing up, I said this: This is the twenty-first century since the birth of Christ; we are not in the nineteenth, eighteenth or seventeenth centuries. And those six included domestic violence, random breath testing, theft, robbery, assaults and motor vehicle theft - no drugs, organised crime, firearms, shootings, attempted murders or homicides. The police arrested the perpetrator of the crime as she climbed to the tram, after people called who reported a woman with blood. Finnane told these citizens that evidence might come out showing that those on trial were Lebanese by origin but that was irrelevant to the question of whether they had committed any offence. The gang also crash-tackled, punched and kicked these girls and stole items of jewellery that they had on them. Indictable offenses are heard in a superior court in the presences of a jury. This then meant there was not sufficient evidence against him of identification. America A Year Later, Unanswered Questions and Bad Blood, The Nanjing Massacre: Scenes from a Hideous Slaughter 75 Years Ago, Blood Money: Tsunami Recovery Funds Go to Japans Whaling Industry. 18:49 EST 27 May 2018. 'I reject this complaint as well,' he writes. Apart from denying that any offences had happened and claiming that the two girls consented to everything, his evidence also placed Ghanem and Hajeid at the park in Greenacre and confirmed that they also had taken part in sexual activity with the two girls. Police Recorded Incidents and Hate Crime: Australia 105 Police Recorded Incidents and Hate Crime Overseas 106 Immigrants as victims of crime 109 Bias in the Criminal Justice System 112 . The closest thing to non-white allies we have is . The former ambassador is no stranger to Lebanese corruption, having fielded astonishing requests from Lebanese officials in his time there seeking Australian aid money for self-fulfilling purposes. rancho bernardo country club membership cost; About. SYDNEY (Reuters) - The children of refugees who fled Lebanon's civil war for peaceful Australia in the 1970s form a majority of Australian militants fighting in the Middle East, according to. You do what you can.. One of them was a fourteen-year-old boy with an intellectual disability who was known, following directions by me, as H, and two brothers, Mahmoud Sanoussi and Mohammed Sanoussi. According to exclusive statistics from the armed crime squad, there has been a five-fold increase in non-fatal shootings in the north-west in four years and the region now sees almost two thirds of Victoria's non-fatal shootings. I cannot recall any other evidence being presented by him or on his behalf. When the verdicts came in after the conclusion of this trial, I informed counsel that I would not sentence their clients until all trials concerning them had concluded. Collins, J. She was also raped vaginally by another man who also forced oral sex on her. The two girls were unaware of the red van until sometime after the men in the white van conveyed them to a park at Greenacre some hours later. Bilal Skaf again had vaginal sex with her. 33. A criminal trial commences with the Crown prosecutor calling evidence, after making a short opening address, then each of the accused in turn calls evidence in his case if he wishes to do so. The devastation has profoundly touched Australias 250,000-strong Lebanese community, with the immediate sense of despair now transitioning to a desperate urge to assist. Criminal organizations are mostly based around extended crime families with a large number of associates from their community. 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