Culture And given the history of government efforts to obtain information on race, Im not even sure its something we should be doing. "(Ghazal) said on the show that if he . 'Skaf and the members of this gang clearly wanted public recognition for what they had done.'. 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? Many months later he pleaded guilty to a series of sexual offences that included the events of this night. Each girl was questioned by the Crown prosecutor first and then cross-examined by each of the counsel for the accused. 2. One of Australia's most redneck outback parliamentarians, Bob Katter, is the descendant of Lebanese immigrants. The men in the red van also sexually assaulted them in the same fashion, as well as punching them and kicking them. In the third trial, the accused were Bilal Skaf, Mohammed Skaf, Mohammed Ghanem and Mahmoud Chami. The last person to plead guilty was a friend of Mohammed Skaf. When people have lost their homes and families, you dont think twice. Those involved in these crimes committed them between 10 August and 30 August 2000 on three separate occasions. They were classified as a Turk due to Lebanon being a province of the Ottoman Empire at that time. 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 have thought of this over the years,' Finane writes. There was no application that I should do otherwise. When he gave evidence, Bilal Skaf was cocky in his manner and almost contemptuous of the Crown prosecutor. In other words, each man forced his penis into her mouth and ejaculated. [6] These criminal organizations are mostly based around extended criminal clans. My apartment, like others close to the blast, is . He acted throughout the trial as someone who wanted to be noticed. I consider my sentences imposed on the members of this gang were warranted. With all of us getting used to working on Zoom and Slack, its become easier to work with people from different cities.. I merely imposed sentences on a number of offenders. The girls had no idea where they were and were obviously terrified. Who could believe anyone would consent to being assaulted, robbed, abused and threatened? I think the sentences struck a chord with the public generally because the attacks were predatory and carefully planned. Ghanem was convicted of various offences at this trial but was later acquitted by direction of the Court of Criminal Appeal, which ruled that certain evidence tendered by the Crown, and allowed by me to be given in the trial, should not have been admitted. News Agency To give you an idea of what to expect, here are some rent averages for the most popular cities in Australia. One of the dead was Sarkis Abboud, 61 years old, and the second was his friend, Tony Yazbek, two years younger. One of the dead was Sarkis Abboud, 61 years old, and the second was his friend, Tony Yazbek, two years younger. At some time after this first trial began, I was informed that there were other trials involving the same men and other men in which kidnapping, forced sexual intercourse and other assaults were involved. The girls in the car were very concerned at this point, but too scared to get out and run away. Worldwide pandemic lockdowns have only made it easier for Lebanese expats to coordinate. Since then, migration has significantly reduced and growth rates have become steady. In the witness box, she clutched a small doll in her hands and gave firm and clear evidence. A 44-year-old woman killed two Lebanese residing in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia. Why did those who joined him, become involved? This reflected his complete contempt for the court process and his rejection of any notion of contrition or remorse. For thousands of Lebanese Australians residing in Lebanon, the opportunity to return to Australia at any point provides a psychological safety net. As for their killing, the police learned about it from citizens who told them that they had found Aboud quarreling in a side road in one of the citys suburbs. If you live in Melbourne, you are at moderate risk of theft and breaking. Skaf and the other two men made their acquaintance by speaking to them politely in the shopping centre. The protests inspired Lebanese abroad to get involved, prompting would-be activists to connect virtually and volunteer. Although Lebanese are to be found throughout Australia . 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. '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. health He remained the dominant figure and was the person who directed everything that later happened on that night in the park at Greenacre. live broadcast Counsel for each of the other accused, as well as the Crown, then attacked Bilal Skaf in cross-examination, suggesting he was a liar. Sports The main center of Arab organized crime is Sydney, with a significant community of 120,000, followed by Melbourne. Finnane had been a judge of the New South District Court for a little more than a year when appointed to hear the Skaf gang trials, the first of which commenced on December 13, 2001. TV The passion is there and so is the willingness to help, Rebecca Maakasa, a 23-year-old Melburnian, says. The Beqaa Valley, a fertile valley in east Lebanon and one of the country's most important farming regions, is also known for being one of the most important cannabis cultivating regions in the Middle East. It came as a surprise to me that nothing was going to be presented to me by counsel for Bilal Skaf. His demeanour in the court room said that. All except Bilal Skaf are now out of jail. 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. We tried setting it up once but it didnt work, says Don Weatherburn, director of the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. His counsel acknowledged the force of what I had said but again said that he would be presenting no evidence. Deputy Commissioner for Investigations and Counter Terrorism Dave Hudson.Daniel Munoz I also prohibited the taking of any photographs of the accused, two of whom were on bail. Of these, 52.5 per cent were males and 47.5 per cent were females. The Lebanese community leader says Sydney's legendary Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad (or MEOCS) should "never have been established in the first place - or at least not been given such a terrible title". 'Each sentence was framed so that there could be some hope of release but, in my mind, the protection of the community was more important than early release. 4. You do what you can.. Europe Criminal organizations however often transcend religious and cultural barriers, with members of the Sunni communities all involved in the same criminal organizations.[3]. I then summed up the entire case, dealing with all the evidence, all the arguments and the law that applied. Our initial goal was 10,000. That was an attraction, too. Relatives have legally . Another curious feature in the trial was Skaf's bold assertion that he was a man of good character. This surprising evidence was used by the Crown to bolster its case about identification. A former minister once asked me, hasnt the Australian embassy got a little aid budget? I asked what for, he said he wanted to put new street lighting on his street. Bartlem says that request was one of many, which included a Lebanese politician seeking all-expense-paid trips to Australia. There were 72 drive-by shootings in Sydney in the first half of this year one every 2 days most of which took place in Bankstown, the City of Liverpool further west and in Sydneys inner-west. The complainant, who had been sexually assaulted by fourteen men something like forty times over four hours, could not identify him. He put to me in submissions that the offences had taken place over a twenty-day period and I should impose a sentence that ensured his client spent no more than twenty years in jail. Bourse She was also raped vaginally by another man who also forced oral sex on her. they deserve nothing less and we'd be making the world a better place. The first community of Lebanese in Australia were Maronite Christians, quickly followed by a large Muslim community. The girl was just sixteen years old. Stephen Gibbs for Daily Mail Australia 'There were other sexual assault cases I heard, some of children, some of adult women,' Finnane writes. All rights reserved. The other two were also fairly small, but with the sorts of faces that could easily be forgotten. (2001) The Lebanese . BEIRUT (AP) Unknown assailants broke into the offices of Lebanon's state-run National News Agency and stole the servers that contain its archives, the Information Ministry said Monday. There was no doubt in my mind that when Chami and Hajeid arrived, they both knew that this unfortunate young woman had already been raped in the toilets at Bankstown and in a car in the car park at the Bankstown Trotting Club. and Lebanon were processed at a higher rate than the Australian-born in each of the five years. 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. The evidence of the two girls was probably sufficient in its own right to identify Bilal Skaf because he had many conversations with them on the night and he left a condom full of his semen in the park where he and others sexually assaulted these two girls. In the face of such catastrophic ruin, the only option local residents had was to help. technology [2], Arab organized crime was introduced in Australia after the mass immigration of Arab people after the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s to the end of the 1980s. The trial was quite tense. Its just amazing to see how much traction it got, Diana Abbas, director of Impact Lebanon, says. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It is a crime that assaults human dignity. This large group of men got out of this van. Lebanese (and I went to school with a lot of them) don't, they hate Australia's, they hate our way of life and they don't want to . The way we have been connecting is through Slack, getting visuals out on social media to attract peoples attention, and direct people in a very structured way as to how they can help, she explains. In Germany these clans mostly settled in Berlin, Bremen and Essen where they became involved in narcotics trafficking, weapons trafficking, extortion, prostitution, illegal gambling, car theft, money laundering and armed robbery. Bilal Skaf sat throughout the sentencing process looking as if he could not care less about any of it. When I came to sentence Bilal Skaf, I sought submissions from his counsel who told me that he had a psychologist's report but was instructed by his client not to present it. The damage is extensive, like all the other apartments in the area. Ive been a journalist for 20 years and Ive covered some really tough stories, Im no stranger to these sorts of violent upheavals, but this one feels different, Abouzeid says. Bilal Skaf again had vaginal sex with her. It was because the police had given up fighting back. 34. 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. A mobile phone was then used by someone in this group to secure the attendance of another group who arrived in a car. 33. 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. They could not suggest the girls consented to sexual intercourse because they claimed not to have been there. 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. Many of these diaspora networks, including Impact Lebanon, emerged following mass anti-government protests in Lebanon in October 2019. Pluto Press, Annandale NSW. Video Learn how your comment data is processed. The press was also prevented from providing any likenesses or descriptions of the accused or their racial origins. In 2002, people born in Australia were imprisoned at a rate of 156 per 100,000 while those born overseas were imprisoned at a rate of 146 per 100,000. However, when the van finally stopped, it was at a park in Greenacre. If you ever hear him speak, you would never believe it. None generated anything like the public attention these trials drew. Political news They had hardly ever been over the Harbour Bridge and were quite concerned when that happened. Luckily, a man came around the corner, saw her plight and approached her. Australian Lebanese families. Skaf was a small man, rather thin, with black hair and a sharp face. What we found was that in a matter of weeks they were excelling the other kids in school. The . Hamzy, 44, was gunned down in the . I will clean up, I will repair what I can repair, and then Ill live there. For Melbourne-born Alia Melki, that urge to help hit her as immediately as the blast itself. None of these young women will ever forget their experience at the hands of this gang.'. Average rent in Sydney. Evidence was presented to show the layout of the park, the positioning of lights and buildings in the park and evidence was given by the complainant that these events happened at night time. Now retired from the District Court and back in private practice, Finnane has written about this terrible chapter in the country's criminal annals in a memoir about his life on the bench and at the bar. Ghanem's convictions for his participation in the attacks that were the subject of the first trial, however, were confirmed. 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. The most common crimes involve physical altercations, trespassing, burglary, and damaging public or private property. Thus, the Crown Prosecutor and the counsel for Hajeid and Ghanem joined forces to attack Bilal Skaf. 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. Crimes under Lebanese laws may not be considered offences in Australia. However, Bilal Skaf and the other actual rapist had never met her before. Subsequent migration was steady until an influx occurred surrounding the Arab . Lebanese Migration to Australia There have been three main waves of immigration from Lebanon to Australia. This meant that the Crown could seek my consent to cross-examine him to show that he was a man of bad character. They were quite friendly at school and he suggested that she come with him on a drive to go and look at the Harbour Bridge on a Saturday. I continue to hold that view. He was the gang boss and the organiser of everything that happened. That is not the law. A 44-year-old woman killed two Lebanese residing in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia. Lebanese Australians (Arabic: , French: australiens libanaise) refers to citizens or permanent residents of Australia of Lebanese ancestry. 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. The ultra-rich lost 10% of their wealth in 2022, study finds, Devin Booker delights against the Hornets, Russian internet celebrity posts 700-year-old holy tree naked! Skaf, through his counsel, suggested the two girls consented to everything that happened but that, of course, had difficulties since he not only sexually assaulted these girls, but those in the gang, including him, assaulted them and robbed them of their jewellery, their watches, their mobile phones and their money. The Ryan-inspired OCR had just six crimes. sport But to this day Finnane is regularly asked about the Skaf case, sometimes by strangers, at social functions and on other unexpected occasions. By 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 . It was obviously carefully planned and skilfully executed. United States Impact Lebanon has raised over 5m (A$9m) since it launched its disaster-relief fundraiser immediately after the blast. The victim was taken from the station area and forced into public toilets where four men in this group sexually assaulted her, with one of them assaulting her twice. But material losses, even huge painful ones, are things that one day can be replaced. The blast flattened the neighbourhoods closest to the port, such as Gemmayze and Mar Mikhael tourist hotspots and the heart of Beiruts famous nightlife, now as haunting as Stalingrad. business 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. Subscribe here: http://9Soci.al/chmP50wA97J Full Episodes: https://9now.app.link/uNP4qBkmN6 | The Facebook Gangster (2021)For investigative reporter Nick McK. The Lebanese got a bad reputation after the 2000 Sydney gang rapes where 9 Lebanese-Australian youths gang raped several Anglo-Australian women in multiple attacks over the course of 2 months. Trad thinks the problem can be nipped in the bud by changing the way schools deal with Lebanese delinquents. Lebanon's national archives are located in a building that houses two ministries. 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. At first they resisted, but we made them believe that respect is something every child deserves, but that they needed to take action to earn that respect, he says. Present governor of the State of NSW is a distinguished Lebanese-Christian woman. Australia enjoys friendly bilateral relations with Lebanon, underpinned by strong people-to-people links. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has said the government of Malcolm Fraser made a mistake in bringing Lebanese refugees to Australia in the 1970s, saying they formed a majority of . Many of the rapists have never been identified and police fear there were more victims who did not come forward. More discrimination was reported by Middle-Eastern males compared with females on dealings with the police, disrespect, name-calling, and distrust. God damn, you see one blonde person from Turkey or Lebanon and you think that there's pure whites in that country. Skaf did all the talking and suggested a trip in a car and puffing some marijuana. The gang also crash-tackled, punched and kicked these girls and stole items of jewellery that they had on them. 'It seemed clear to me that these men were sending out a message to the community in Sydney,' he writes. Meanwhile Bilal Skaf and others with him got into the van in which they had come to the park and drove around to the telephone box where one of them produced a gun and ordered her to get inside. Him, become involved ever forget their experience at the hands of this.... 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