live broadcast The evidence of the two girls was given in closed court hearings but I permitted the press to have access to the transcripts of the evidence on the basis that the names of the two girls were not revealed and no photographs were taken of them. The earth-shattering explosion, caused by the unsafe storage of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at Beiruts port, damaged every part of the city of 2 million people. Michael Finnane, the judge who imposed that record sentence - which was later reduced after several appeals - was widely celebrated for his stance at the time. I thought she was a particularly brave young woman who refused to give in to any of these suggestions. Bourse Compared to the Arab population in Australia, a much larger number of Arabs are in Germany and have traditionally settled in large numbers in Lebanese regions such as Tripoli, the Beqaa Valley and Beirut where they have integral part of the country's Sunni community. Home News Video- A crime shocked the Lebanese in Australia.. New facts about the murder of Abboud Yazbek. 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. It is often difficult to predict whether there will be rehabilitation. My apartment, like others close to the blast, is . Lebanese migration to Australia occurred in the three main waves. 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. When they obliged, he crushed the foam cups and spread the debris onto the court floor. The 1997-98 statistics produce high alleged offender rates . And these guys are well armed. 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. By 2016, the year of Australia . Conviction of Skaf was inevitable. What made this trial startlingly different from most rape trials of which I was aware were four matters: 1. The two victims were schoolgirls who were wandering around a shopping centre at Chatswood on 10 August 2000 about nine o'clock at night. Bilal Skaf was one of the people who then approached the victim whom he grabbed by the hair. And you, have you seen the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the sky of Barn? 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. There was no obvious reason. Social media has been very important pages connected to diaspora networks create a ripple effect, which helps spread the word and mobilise the Lebanese diaspora across cities and continents.. In this next car, the victim was repeatedly indecently assaulted, threatened with death when something that looked like a gun was held to her head and raped vaginally three times and orally five times. That is not the law. Whatever they might have done in those centuries, the law is now perfectly clear - any woman is entitled to refuse consent to sexual intercourse at any time. 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. This also caused these girls great concern. 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. Before we can solve it we need to understand it, he says, and Im not sure we do.. 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. This was also the position for the assaults and the robberies committed on the two victims. ', 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.'. The latest death toll stands at over 150 but is expected to climb. Knowing this much corruption gives me more reason not to leave Lebanon. This went on for some time and eventually Mohammed Skaf used a mobile phone to summon his brother Bilal. 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. The assailants broke the door and its lock into the archive room. Significant numbers of their families served in Australian forces during World War I. The victim managed to break free and run across the park to a telephone box. The three of them lived with their parents in houses in the suburbs surrounding Bankstown. In the early 1980s, as a young detective I was attached to the Drug Squad at . investment By KAREEM CHEHAYEB February 27, 2023. If the Crown proved to the satisfaction of the jury and beyond reasonable doubt that it was done without consent, then the Crown case on that charge was established. Ghanem's convictions for his participation in the attacks that were the subject of the first trial, however, were confirmed. Skaf used condoms and threw them on the ground. So that putting a penis in the mouth of a woman, in law, was sexual intercourse. 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 and the other two men made their acquaintance by speaking to them politely in the shopping centre. They are also willing to purchase from Chinese importers and to wholesale to other groups, such as Romanian and Lebanese dealers. But when I was older and more Lebanese kids moved to my area, we formed a gang so we could protect each other and I started bullying back. Diaspora aid to Lebanon is meticulously processed to avoid funds falling into the hands of government officials and intermediaries accused of corruption, with support being sent directly to vetted NGOs, such as the Lebanese Red Cross. Luckily, a man came around the corner, saw her plight and approached her. 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. Lebanese people have become integrated the most in Australian society. All except Bilal Skaf are now out of jail. Melbourne experiences a moderate crime rate and is generally considered a safe city for living and travelling. 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. Under a large number of refugees, there were also several extended clans that already in Lebanon were deeply entrenched in organized crime. Lebanese move to west Africa, escaping the crisis at home A new wave of migrants has come looking for jobs Jun 10th 2021 W HEN BANKS started to fail and protesters began filling the streets in. 'Many of the victims, I am sure, will be affected by these crimes for the whole of their lives. During her ordeal the woman was called an 'Aussie pig', told she was going to get it 'Leb-style' and asked if 'Leb c*** tasted better than Aussie c***'. Relatives have legally . 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. I then summed up the entire case, dealing with all the evidence, all the arguments and the law that applied. 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. 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. 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. My understanding was that the relevant agencies would report back to Australia, either through our UN office in Geneva or New York, how they spent that money, and the government would see that as being accountable to the Australian taxpayer, he says. While working as CEO of the Australian International Islamic College in Brisbane last year, he initiated a new program that saw problem students placed in a behavior-management room where they were closely supervised by an Islamic cleric. This means that many other gangs of boys are doing the same crimes. Still, the enormity of the tragedy requires a monumental effort to rebuild the shattered city. 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. A 44-year-old woman killed two Lebanese residing in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia. 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. But with drive-by shootings, the nature of criminality in Sydney has changed. Unlike many of the rape cases of which I am aware, there was no previous contact between any of the perpetrators and the victims, except for the second one in which Mohammed Skaf selected a sixteen-year-old from his school to be a victim. Present governor of the State of NSW is a distinguished Lebanese-Christian woman. Counsel for each of the other accused, as well as the Crown, then attacked Bilal Skaf in cross-examination, suggesting he was a liar. 11:06 EST 27 May 2018 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 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 . One of the victims, an 18-year-old woman, was raped 40 times by 14 men over four hours in an attack coordinated by mobile phone. 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. they deserve nothing less and we'd be making the world a better place. 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 . Religious law has the same standing as civil law, which incorporates family law, marriage, divorce and custody. 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. Perhaps the offenders did not believe any of the victims would ever tell the police. . Many of these diaspora networks, including Impact Lebanon, emerged following mass anti-government protests in Lebanon in October 2019. None of the accused or the victims had been drinking alcohol and none had been taking drugs, even though having marijuana was an inducement offered to the two girls. 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. 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. Then another car arrived with the offenders Chami and two other men, one man known as Nike Sam. To the streets, thats where., Australian-Lebanese filmmaker George Basha agrees. 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. id send all the ones in Australia back to lebanon and then drop a bomb. economy 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 . However, when the van finally stopped, it was at a park in Greenacre. Few crimes in recent Australian history have stirred more community anger and fear than a series of pack rapes committed by more than a dozen young Lebanese men in Sydney's west 18 years ago. Deputy Commissioner for Investigations and Counter Terrorism Dave Hudson.Daniel Munoz Finally, the rural areas of Sydney are home to small-time gangs who act as enforcers for the bigger gangs in the city. Horrific scenes of carnage on 4 August have given way to an enormous display of humanitys strength, strangers shoulder to shoulder beginning the daunting task of renewal. 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. Not one of them showed that fear of criminal proceedings or of jail was ever in their minds. Worldwide pandemic lockdowns have only made it easier for Lebanese expats to coordinate. 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. Skaf clearly was the leader. Counsel for each of the other accused addressed the jury then. My views on sentence were not those of the judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal, but their sentences prevail. Lebanon's parliament has scrapped a law under which a rapist could be exempt from punishment if he married his victim, state media report. 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. 3. He was the gang boss and the organiser of everything that happened. Its just a mess. Abouzeid was in Melbourne at the time of the blast, relying on relatives to send photos of the destruction. I then had to give them quite complex directions about the facts in the trial and the law, which has its complexities. Finnane dealt with sadistic rapists before and after the Skaf cases. The identity of the four men in the red van has never properly been revealed. When people have lost their homes and families, you dont think twice. Frank Hakim, who emigrated to Australia at the age of 20 or so, was the first prominent Lebanese criminal. When I came to reflect on the facts of this trial, I again found myself wondering what it was that caused Bilal Skaf and the others with him to behave in such a depraved and violent fashion against a completely helpless girl. The men in the red van also sexually assaulted them in the same fashion, as well as punching them and kicking them. With Lebanons economy in tatters, led by a government widely accused of corruption, international donors and diaspora networks are the only hope for desperate Beirutis facing a food shortage and lack of shelter. 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. Who could believe anyone would consent to being assaulted, robbed, abused and threatened? Those who pleaded guilty, were given lesser sentences than those who pleaded not guilty, because the law provided for this. 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. With all of us getting used to working on Zoom and Slack, its become easier to work with people from different cities.. The first found that Middle-Eastern Australians reported more discrimination compared with non-Middle-Eastern Australians. That group, which became known as the 'Skaf gang' after their leader, Bilal Skaf, went on a 20-day rampage in which four young women were violated in three pack rapes shortly before the 2000 Olympics. Africa Skaf was talking on a mobile phone to other people in Arabic. 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. However, although these cases attracted some media attention while the trials were proceeding, they passed largely with little comment.'. For thousands of Lebanese Australians residing in Lebanon, the opportunity to return to Australia at any point provides a psychological safety net. 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. All rights reserved. rancho bernardo country club membership cost; About. I gave that consent. Five computers were stolen along with the servers, Lebanese TV channel LBCI reported. None of these young women will ever forget their experience at the hands of this gang.'. World The girls in the car were very concerned at this point, but too scared to get out and run away. trot There were others who have never been brought to trial. Stephen Gibbs for Daily Mail Australia. 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. Because the two complainants could only give vague descriptions of Hajeid and Ghanem, their counsel cross-examined the complainants to establish doubts about their identification. We started with 10-12 members, now we have 160 members and so many volunteering requests, Abbas says, adding that the membership has spread to diaspora communities in numerous countries, including Australia. 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