lebanese in australia crime

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. The press was also prevented from providing any likenesses or descriptions of the accused or their racial origins. Murder was not in his mind; terrifying people generally was.'. I directed that he be known only as 'H', but his identity was not revealed in this first trial. 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. entertainment Finally, the rural areas of Sydney are home to small-time gangs who act as enforcers for the bigger gangs in the city. Conviction of Skaf was inevitable. As well as these men who went to trial, there were four other men who subsequently pleaded guilty to participating in this spate of sexual assaults. Her evidence was very powerful. After finishing school, Basha became involved in more serious crimes. The assailants broke the door and its lock into the archive room. Subsequent migration was steady until an influx occurred surrounding the Arab . Breaking news Australia enjoys friendly bilateral relations with Lebanon, underpinned by strong people-to-people links. 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. He made and received most of the Arabic language phone calls, which were used to tell the men in the red van who he had with him and where they were going. To the streets, thats where., Australian-Lebanese filmmaker George Basha agrees. 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. Corona It was obviously carefully planned and skilfully executed. You do what you can.. New South Wales (NSW) state police have arrested 31 people, including three teenagers, after a turf war between two prominent drug gangs [File: David Gray/Reuters] By Ian Lloyd Neubauer. For thousands of Lebanese Australians residing in Lebanon, the opportunity to return to Australia at any point provides a psychological safety net. The victim was then taken by car to a car park near the Bankstown Trotting Club where she was vaginally raped once and orally raped twice. Mobile phone technology was used on each occasion to coordinate the attacks, which were well planned and carried out with determination by young men, one as young as fourteen, the oldest being Bilal Skaf at twenty-one years of age. Lebanon.. The Skaf gang used cunning methods to lure young women during a terrifying rampage in southwestern Sydney which changed the city forever. I wouldnt even put the request through to Canberra that the Lebanese government wanted direct funding, because it would go nowhere., That level of overt corruption is only too familiar for ordinary Lebanese, who blame government negligence and mismanagement for the devastating blast. Vietnamese Organised Crime in Australia . I considered that I should say these words because it was important that the jury and anyone listening to the trial, including the accused, have a full realisation that a woman has to do nothing more than refuse consent. 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. Ill work till the end to help save this country from this corrupt mafia government., Beirut blast timeline: what we know and what we don't, Beirut explosion: anger at officials grows after missed warnings, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Each girl was questioned by the Crown prosecutor first and then cross-examined by each of the counsel for the accused. 11:06 EST 27 May 2018 Average rent in Canberra. When he gave evidence, Bilal Skaf was cocky in his manner and almost contemptuous of the Crown prosecutor. Men of Middle Eastern appearance banteramicably in Arabic within tea rooms and coffee shops, while women wearing headscarves, hijabs and, on the odd occasion, burqas wheel prams through Centro, Bankstowns sparkling white shopping center. 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. The victim managed to break free and run across the park to a telephone box. These are questions that will probably never be answered. Single expats: 1.773 USD. Lebanon's national archives are located in a building that houses two ministries. I cannot recall any other evidence being presented by him or on his behalf. [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. Bourse Single expats: 1.630 USD. I also prohibited the taking of any photographs of the accused, two of whom were on bail. Melbourne experiences a moderate crime rate and is generally considered a safe city for living and travelling. A large number of former Lebanese citizens immigrated to several major German cities under political asylum and refugee status. 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. 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. Growing up in western Sydney, I was bullied and picked on for everything I did and stood for. Culture Sexual intercourse without consent was the principal crime contemplated and committed. 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. Unidentified thieves broke into the headquarters of Lebanon's state news agency and stole a server containing its photo archive, officials say. This then meant there was not sufficient evidence against him of identification. From 1880 to the 1920s, mainly Maronite, Melkite and Orthodox Christians arrived on a small scale. 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. When later interviewed, Chami claimed that Bilal Skaf told him, 'There's a slut at the Bankstown Trotting Club.' . You just want more, Basha says. That concern was also reflected in the Australian governments own pledge of $2m this week, with foreign minister Marise Payne announcing the money would be evenly split between the UN World Food Programme and the Lebanese Red Cross. On that day Bilal Skaf, Belal Hajeid and Mohammed Ghanem sat behind bullet-proof glass in the dock of a court room within Sydney's Downing Centre complex. One of Australia's most redneck outback parliamentarians, Bob Katter, is the descendant of Lebanese immigrants. The most common crimes involve physical altercations, trespassing, burglary, and damaging public or private property. ', Then Labor premier Bob Carr has said of the original 55-year sentence: 'It was certainly a headline grabber, it met community expectations, it sent a powerful message to any punk with violent tendencies on the margins of gang activity that this was very dangerous behaviour.'. 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. Crimes under Lebanese laws may not be considered offences in Australia. Hamzy, 44, was gunned down in the . 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. To my mind, the community deserved to be protected from Bilal Skaf for many years. The second trial had two accused only, Bilal Skaf and Mohammed Skaf, his younger brother. I also told them to put out of their minds any religious or racial views they had. 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 police arrested the perpetrator of the crime as she climbed to the tram, after people called who reported a woman with blood. Then another car arrived with the offenders Chami and two other men, one man known as Nike Sam. The girl was just sixteen years old. 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 . Australian society and government were mostly doing this until Bowen's speech. Lebanese mafia is a Colloquial term for organized crime groups which origin from Lebanon and Levant. Shimbiris VIP A number of the men penetrated her vagina with their fingers. Lebanese organized crime is active in the country of Lebanon itself, as well as in countries and areas with a large Arab community, most notably United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and in the Triple Frontier in South America. This large group of men got out of this van. While Finnane's sentencing of the Skaf gang members was widely lauded and drew praise from many politicians, he was criticised privately by some other judges. When the victim went to get into the car, however, she saw two other men there whom she did not know and did not expect would be there. Finnnane sentenced Bilal Skaf to a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison with a minimum term of 40 years. The first found that Middle-Eastern Australians reported more discrimination compared with non-Middle-Eastern Australians. technology Im Lebanese Australian and Im proud of both parts of my identity. Lebanese mafia is a Colloquial term for organized crime groups which origin from Lebanon and Levant.Lebanese organized crime is active in the country of Lebanon itself, as well as in countries and areas with a large Arab community, most notably United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Canada also in the Triple Frontier in South America. What is still difficult for me to understand is why this serious criminal conspiracy involving so many young men was launched. The jury considered this very carefully and were out considering their verdicts for a number of days but, when they came back, they convicted the three accused on all charges. At no point, however, did he identify the men in the red van. 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. It came as a surprise to me that nothing was going to be presented to me by counsel for Bilal Skaf. They are also willing to purchase from Chinese importers and to wholesale to other groups, such as Romanian and Lebanese dealers. The improvement was remarkable Imagine what they would be capable of if they had a better start in life., PHOTOS:Wildfires Scorch Australia As Temperatures Reach Record Highs. He later pleaded guilty to some of the offences and when he did, I directed that he not be identified by his name. 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? My views on sentence were not those of the judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal, but their sentences prevail. This reflected his complete contempt for the court process and his rejection of any notion of contrition or remorse. Lebanese organized crime is active in the country of Lebanon itself, as well as in countries and areas with a large Arab community, most notably United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Canada also in the Triple Frontier in South America. 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. He also clicked his fingers towards my court officers, ordering them to get him water. Then it was reported from the police, that its investigators were trying to find a driver, who they believe transported the appellant from Brunswick, where the crime was committed, to the Carlton North area, where she was arrested, and said that he was wearing a dark-colored jacket with boxes in the back seat of his car, in addition to a breathing tube. After being indecently assaulted on the train, she was then forced off the train and was taken up the steps of the Bankstown railway station. After they were raped, the victims were just abandoned. I was always hopeful that the people I sentenced in other cases might see the point of rehabilitation and, undoubtedly, some of them did. Terror in Sydney: The Unspeakable Crimes of Bilal Skaf's Lebanese Rape Gang (Crime Documentary) Each girl denied this and gave evidence that Skaf, and those with him in the white van, persistently put pressure on them to engage in oral sex in the van on the way to Greenacre. These two girls did not expect to be driven over the Harbour Bridge. In the 1980s . If I opened up my lunchbox and pulled out a Lebanese roll, I would get hassled. There was no evidence that any offences were committed because of religious or cultural or racial reasons and, in fact, there had been no mention of religion at any time in the trial. Called next to him in the front seat, but she indicated that there was no evidence of his involvement in the crime, but only wanted him as a witness to it. However, when the van finally stopped, it was at a park in Greenacre. The commission of a crime that shocked the Lebanese, who numbered 70 to 90,000 between expatriates and descendants in the city. This offence carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment. Its just amazing to see how much traction it got, Diana Abbas, director of Impact Lebanon, says. Confined at home due to Victorias lockdown, Maakasa has taken to social media to connect with others in the Lebanese diaspora across the world and offer assistance however she can. Why did the gang first of all go to a shopping centre at Chatswood? Bilal Skaf raped her vaginally and another man, whom she could not identify, also raped her vaginally. But material losses, even huge painful ones, are things that one day can be replaced. As a policy, multiculturalism was introduced by immigration minister Al . More discrimination was reported by Middle-Eastern males compared with females on dealings with the police, disrespect, name-calling, and distrust. 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. Ukraine We are afraid there is some connection between these guys here and the guys in Lebanon, he said during a three-month visit to Sydney earlier this year to exchange information on criminal syndicates with the New South Wales Police Forces Middle Eastern Crime Squad. 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. A 44-year-old woman killed two Lebanese residing in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia. 33. Expat families: 3.413 USD. It is often difficult to predict whether there will be rehabilitation. The devastation in Beirut has profoundly touched Australias 250,000-strong Lebanese community. Skaf was talking on a mobile phone to other people in Arabic. According to the NSW Police, Lebanese crime families have started to corner the market on drug-dealing, causing them to clash with other gangs in the city. I hope that those who have been released do rehabilitate or, at the very least, that they do not re-offend. Another curious feature in the trial was Skaf's bold assertion that he was a man of good character. . Some experienced criminal lawyers also expressed disagreements with Finnane's sentences, claiming he had no regard to the Skaf brothers' rehabilitation. The 1995 NSW Legislative Council standing committee on social issues reported that while Lebanese-Australian youth comprise 0.9% of . 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. The damage is extensive, like all the other apartments in the area. Worldwide pandemic lockdowns have only made it easier for Lebanese expats to coordinate. In analogy with Australia, Arab organized crime also came to Germany following the Lebanese Civil War. Lebanese families across generations in both rural and urban areas, including changes over time in occupations, education, religion, community activities and family values. Its just a mess. Abouzeid was in Melbourne at the time of the blast, relying on relatives to send photos of the destruction. The population is diverse, having a large Christian religious base, being mostly Maronite Catholics, while also having a large Muslim group of Sunni branch of Islam.. Lebanon, in both its modern-day form as the Lebanese state . 18:49 EST 27 May 2018. But with drive-by shootings, the nature of criminality in Sydney has changed. He will remain a threat to the community. The 37-year-old Carlingford man and 40-year-old Dundas Valley man have been charged with Dealing in the proceeds of crime - money or property worth $1,000,000 or more, contrary to section 400.3 (1) of the Criminal Code (Cth). Skaf did all the talking and suggested a trip in a car and puffing some marijuana. All the windows were broken, the doors blown up, she says. But these days its worse. A mobile phone was then used by someone in this group to secure the attendance of another group who arrived in a car. This was also the position for the assaults and the robberies committed on the two victims. 'It seemed clear to me that these men were sending out a message to the community in Sydney,' he writes. 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. Restaurateurs in Bankstown pay up to $50,000 a year in protection money or risk having their premises firebombed, while Shia and Sunni Muslims exchange invectives and blows on the streets. Arab Book China "(Ghazal) said on the show that if he . 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lebanese in australia crime