This meant that the Crown could seek my consent to cross-examine him to show that he was a man of bad character. I think the sentences struck a chord with the public generally because the attacks were predatory and carefully planned. The devastation has profoundly touched Australia's 250,000-strong Lebanese community, with the immediate sense of despair now transitioning to a desperate urge to assist. Hamzy, 44, was gunned down in the . And these guys are well armed. Result: gun crime in western Sydney and northern Melbourne often involves Lebanese Australians, as we saw with the murder last month of Hamad Assaad, himself a suspected hitman. There was no doubt about Skaf's involvement because, apart from his own admissions, the DNA evidence linking him to the events was very clear. I cannot recall any other evidence being presented by him or on his behalf. I continue to hold that view. 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. Arab world "The passion is there. This was also the position for the assaults and the robberies committed on the two victims. The passion is there and so is the willingness to help, Rebecca Maakasa, a 23-year-old Melburnian, says. 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. Her evidence was very powerful. That is my hope. He had convictions for offences of dishonesty and it was thus easy for the Crown to establish that he was a man of bad character. Frequently, whilst sitting in the dock, he clicked his fingers towards his counsel, summoning him over. Life cannot. Why did the gang first of all go to a shopping centre at Chatswood? Australian Lebanese families. Corona Single expats: 1.630 USD. 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 . health Bilal Skaf sat throughout the sentencing process looking as if he could not care less about any of it. In certain parts of the region, life is structured around extended clan families, a number of whom are active in criminal activities such as narcotics trafficking, kidnapping for ransom and car theft. Australia's law defines rape as "unlawful sexual act with another person by force; without their consent." The rapists' record tape a great amount of their rape and this was used in court as evidence. 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 others who have never been brought to trial. 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 was no obvious reason. By The existence of criminal activity among these communities is not the issue. It is also possible that there were other victims who have never come forward. This was a criminal conspiracy involving two groups of men, that was carefully coordinated by mobile phones. 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. Skaf used condoms and threw them on the ground. 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. Relatives have legally . At no point, however, did he identify the men in the red van. The protests inspired Lebanese abroad to get involved, prompting would-be activists to connect virtually and volunteer. Koreans, growing numbers of Indians, and on the Lakemba side lots of Lebanese and other Arabs. National; Crime; How Skaf rape gang trapped their victims. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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. In the mid-1960s he obtained the protection of Lennie McPherson and proceeded to provide protection himself to Lebanese and other ethnic gaming clubs. In the past there was a code among crime gangs in Sydney that bodies in the street were bad for business, says Michael Duffy, the author of Drive By, a new novel about a Lebanese crime family and the efforts of a bigoted, dispirited police force to lock them up. The 1997-98 statistics produce high alleged offender rates . 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. It is often difficult to predict whether there will be rehabilitation. My views on sentence were not those of the judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal, but their sentences prevail. Lebanese organized crime syndicates generally are active globally, largely due to the mass Arab population. The closest thing to non-white allies we have is . Coronavirus More discrimination was reported by Middle-Eastern males compared with females on dealings with the police, disrespect, name-calling, and distrust. 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. entertainment 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. The second trial had two accused only, Bilal Skaf and Mohammed Skaf, his younger brother. 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. They had hardly ever been over the Harbour Bridge and were quite concerned when that happened. 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. 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. In other words, each man forced his penis into her mouth and ejaculated. But with drive-by shootings, the nature of criminality in Sydney has changed. TV Finally, the rural areas of Sydney are home to small-time gangs who act as enforcers for the bigger gangs in the city. 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. A mobile phone was then used by someone in this group to secure the attendance of another group who arrived in a car. Bilal Skaf was the eldest and was about 21 years of age. Average rent in Melbourne. This large group of men got out of this van. Among them is one Australian, with as many as 300,000 made homeless. I then summed up the entire case, dealing with all the evidence, all the arguments and the law that applied. A number of the men penetrated her vagina with their fingers. To condemn the racialisation of crime is not to deny that there are Lebanese Australians or Vietnamese Australians who commit crimes. Surprised by Lebanese officials audaciously asking for Australian money for personal reasons, Bartlem refused to process their requests further. Lebanon was still politically dysfunctional and rivalries had left it without a president for most of 2016. This surprising evidence was used by the Crown to bolster its case about identification. "(Ghazal) said on the show that if he . Average rent in Canberra. [6] These criminal organizations are mostly based around extended criminal clans. I live in the hyphen between those two identities, Abouzeid says, now en route to Beirut to salvage her home. They are also willing to purchase from Chinese importers and to wholesale to other groups, such as Romanian and Lebanese dealers. 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.'. And given the history of government efforts to obtain information on race, Im not even sure its something we should be doing. UAE Often different rival criminal families are interlocked in feuds, resulting in a fair amount of violence. Will this be the catalyst that prompts the move home? Those who pleaded guilty, were given lesser sentences than those who pleaded not guilty, because the law provided for this. Subscribe here: http://9Soci.al/chmP50wA97J Full Episodes: https://9now.app.link/uNP4qBkmN6 | The Facebook Gangster (2021)For investigative reporter Nick McK. The main activities of Arab gangs in Australia are narcotics and weapons trafficking, extortion, prostitution, car theft and money laundering. (2001) The Lebanese . In the 1980s . Sexual intercourse without consent was the principal crime contemplated and committed. Crimes under Lebanese laws may not be considered offences in Australia. Unidentified thieves broke into the headquarters of Lebanon's state news agency and stole a server containing its photo archive, officials say. Political news 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. Both Mohammed Skaf and the victim went and saw her mother and got her consent as the trip was going to be on a Saturday night. The identity of the four men in the red van has never properly been revealed. From 1880 to the 1920s, mainly Maronite, Melkite and Orthodox Christians arrived on a small scale. Lebanese mafia is a Colloquial term for organized crime groups which origin from Lebanon and Levant. Australia's law defines rape as "unlawful sexual act with another person by force; without their consent." Not one of them showed that fear of criminal proceedings or of jail was ever in their minds. 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. Indeed, when he was being taken away after I imposed sentence on him, he turned to me and said, 'And I am innocent, you c***t!' ', 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.'. Those accompanying Bilal Skaf on 12 August, perhaps ten, perhaps eleven men, have not been brought to trial and many of those involved in the horrific spate of sexual assaults on 30 August 2000 have not been brought to trial. 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 commission of a crime that shocked the Lebanese, who numbered 70 to 90,000 between expatriates and descendants in the city. Its just a mess. Abouzeid was in Melbourne at the time of the blast, relying on relatives to send photos of the destruction. Sports Knowing this much corruption gives me more reason not to leave Lebanon. It was non-stop, he says. After finishing school, Basha became involved in more serious crimes. News In 1996, 72 per cent of Lebanese in Australia lived in Sydney. Expat families: 3.413 USD. The fact is that right up to the present, none of the perpetrators have ever said why they became involved in these crimes. economy If you live in Melbourne, you are at moderate risk of theft and breaking. I directed that he be known only as 'H', but his identity was not revealed in this first trial. 'All of them were examples of depravity and cruelty. I cannot say what will happen to these men. 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. For example, I had to explain that sexual intercourse was not, as many people might think, only penetration of the vagina of a woman by the penis of a man, but extended to penetration of any part of the body of a person by any part of the body of another. Lebanon.. Lebanese organized crime syndicates generally are active . There was another man, later identified as Y, who took part in the events on this night. . I also told them to put out of their minds any religious or racial views they had. Football new In the case of the Lebanese in Australia , specifically Sydney, they took this to another level and built a bad reputation in a number of areas: organised crime, petty crime (robbing and beating up people), questionable business practices (famous for not paying for services rendered or under delivering). 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. Little is known regarding the health and lifestyle behaviours of Australians of Lebanese ethnicity. . They made very little attempt to cover their tracks. 34. 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. I pointed out at the time that he was likely to get the biggest sentence ever imposed for these sort of offences and surely he would want to present something to ameliorate his part in these crimes. Conviction of Skaf was inevitable. Bilal Skaf and up to eleven other men who were never identified, then turned up in a van sometime later. When later interviewed, Chami claimed that Bilal Skaf told him, 'There's a slut at the Bankstown Trotting Club.' They were an attack on society, but why? Rebecca Maakasa, confined in Melbournes lockdown, is connecting through social media to the Lebanese diaspora to offer whatever assistance she can, Its like an apocalyptic world, Sydney-born Yasmin Kassis describes. 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. One of the dead was Sarkis Abboud, 61 years old, and the second was his friend, Tony Yazbek, two years younger. The assailants broke the door and its lock into the archive room. Bilal Skaf was one of the people who then approached the victim whom he grabbed by the hair. 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. I will clean up, I will repair what I can repair, and then Ill live there. Its just amazing to see how much traction it got, Diana Abbas, director of Impact Lebanon, says. What made this trial startlingly different from most rape trials of which I was aware were four matters: 1. The first community of Lebanese in Australia were Maronite Christians, quickly followed by a large Muslim community. The law provides that a discount of up to 25 per cent is appropriate to be given if the plea of guilty is given at an early time. All except Bilal Skaf are now out of jail. [4] Some of the more notorious Arab mafia families include the infamous el-koura Younes Clan, the Shams Clan the Al Zein Clan[5] and the Miri Clan from Bremen. Until this point, Hajeid and Ghanem had been on bail. They were classified as a Turk due to Lebanon being a province of the Ottoman Empire at that time. Many among Australia's Lebanese community trace their families' arrival back to the 1960s and 1970s, when the number of Lebanese-born residents tripled to 33,424. Bilal Skaf did most of the talking to the girls and called himself 'Adam'. 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