It was obviously carefully planned and skilfully executed. This surprising evidence was used by the Crown to bolster its case about identification. Thus, the Crown Prosecutor and the counsel for Hajeid and Ghanem joined forces to attack Bilal Skaf. It is a crime that assaults human dignity. 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. 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. Criminal organizations however often transcend religious and cultural barriers, with members of the Sunni communities all involved in the same criminal organizations.[3]. Little is known regarding the health and lifestyle behaviours of Australians of Lebanese ethnicity. As a policy, multiculturalism was introduced by immigration minister Al . Earlier we met Redfern-based Frank Hakim, the first major Lebanese criminal in Sydney, and younger men such as Louis Bayeh and Danny Karam. Bilal Skaf, however, elected to give evidence. Russia The three of them lived with their parents in houses in the suburbs surrounding Bankstown. Many of these diaspora networks, including Impact Lebanon, emerged following mass anti-government protests in Lebanon in October 2019. It is also possible that there were other victims who have never come forward. USA It seemed clear to me that these men were sending out a message to the community in Sydney. 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. Rania Abouzeids apartment in Beirut, close to the blast site. RELATED: Manhunt under way after shooting in Sydney suburb. 'What the Skaf gang did was to enable multiple men to defile and degrade four young women. Expat families: 3.413 USD. Id punch any Aussie kid who even looked at me., (MORE:Circle Sentencing: Alternative Justice in Australia). At the time, Mohammed Skaf was still a schoolboy and attended the same school as the victim, to whom he was known as 'Sam'. 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. His counsel acknowledged the force of what I had said but again said that he would be presenting no evidence. 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. However, Bilal Skaf and the other actual rapist had never met her before. After finishing school, Basha became involved in more serious crimes. 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. Murder was not in his mind; terrifying people generally was.'. 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. 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Ghanem's convictions for his participation in the attacks that were the subject of the first trial, however, were confirmed. 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. She was also raped vaginally by another man who also forced oral sex on her. One of the dead was Sarkis Abboud, 61 years old, and the second was his friend, Tony Yazbek, two years younger. In my view, all of these men remain a continuing threat to the Sydney community and particularly to young women. Although Lebanese are to be found throughout Australia . 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). They could not suggest the girls consented to sexual intercourse because they claimed not to have been there. A lot of the racism against Lebanese people in Australia however dates to before 9/11. 'Sexual intercourse without consent must be the worst crime after murder, because it involves a person invading the body of another, usually violently. They were classified as a Turk due to Lebanon being a province of the Ottoman Empire at that time. What we know about the Beirut explosion video explainer, caused by the unsafe storage of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, anti-government protests in Lebanon in October 2019, president Emmanuel Macron toured the devastated scenes. Impact Lebanon has raised over 5m (A$9m) since it launched its disaster-relief fundraiser immediately after the blast. 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 first occurred from 1880 to 1947 when many Maronite, Melkite and Orthodox Christians migrated. . Frequently, whilst sitting in the dock, he clicked his fingers towards his counsel, summoning him over. 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. 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. Australia In Sydney, Disaffected Lebanese Kids Caught in Spiraling Gang Violence Facing racism at school and pressure at home, children from Middle Eastern families in Australia are dragged. EXTRACT: After the sentences were imposed, many people would say things like, 'I'm glad you got those Lebs,' but I found myself trying to explain that I did not 'get those Lebs' at all. In the 1980s . The criminal justice system judged and punished the perpetrators. These two girls did not expect to be driven over the Harbour Bridge. An estimate of the total Lebanese population in Australia, consisting of Lebanese-born and their descendants, is approaching 250,000. Learn how your comment data is processed. Lebanon.. News In Australia crimes are legally classified as either indictable or non-indictable. They believed they would be driven around Chatswood, have a few puffs of marijuana and would then go home. In no sense were the members of this gang representing other Lebanese people. This went on for some time and eventually Mohammed Skaf used a mobile phone to summon his brother Bilal. Racially motivated crime and punishment The treatment of a jailed Lebanese-Australian rapist has highlighted a wider debate about ethnicity and crime in this most cosmopolitan of nations,. National; Crime; How Skaf rape gang trapped their victims. The second trial had two accused only, Bilal Skaf and Mohammed Skaf, his younger brother. A mobile phone was then used by someone in this group to secure the attendance of another group who arrived in a car. 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. More discrimination was reported by Middle-Eastern males compared with females on dealings with the police, disrespect, name-calling, and distrust. They wanted wide publicity. Skaf used condoms and threw them on the ground. From the outset, the City of Bankstown in south-western Sydneys sprawling migrant belt is a picture of multiculturalism. However, these crimes were of secondary importance. Among them is one Australian, with as many as 300,000 made homeless. The closest thing to non-white allies we have is . Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. It was nearly midnight. years have drawn attention to Lebanese crime and to police searches for suspects 'of Middle Eastern appearance'.10 Lebanese Muslim clerics such as Sheik Taj el-Din al Al-Hilali, known as the mufti or spiritual leader of Australia's Muslims and imam of the Sunni Mosque in Lakemba,11 or Sheikh Abdul Salam Zoud, are often in the news in . 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. One of Australia's most redneck outback parliamentarians, Bob Katter, is the descendant of Lebanese immigrants. Killing and shooting and illegal activity have become part of daily life. Lebanese mafia is a Colloquial term for organized crime groups which origin from Lebanon and Levant. 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. It was non-stop, he says. 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. A 44-year-old woman killed two Lebanese residing in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia. Mr Inbetween (2018-2021) TV-MA | 30 min | Crime, Drama 8.6 Rate this What made this trial startlingly different from most rape trials of which I was aware were four matters: 1. Stephen Gibbs for Daily Mail Australia. From 1880 to the 1920s, mainly Maronite, Melkite and Orthodox Christians arrived on a small scale. They were followed by other groups of criminals of Lebanese descent, many of whom, in contrast to their predecessors, preferred to remain in the part of Sydney where Keep Reading Tri Minh Tran That sentence was modified several times upon appeal. However, the victims' descriptions of the other men who attacked them were quite vague, as could be expected. He later pleaded guilty to some of the offences and when he did, I directed that he not be identified by his name. 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. This reflected his complete contempt for the court process and his rejection of any notion of contrition or remorse. Still, the enormity of the tragedy requires a monumental effort to rebuild the shattered city. The first community of Lebanese in Australia were Maronite Christians, quickly followed by a large Muslim community. 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. The complainants clearly identified Skaf, whose counsel suggested to each complainant that she had consented to having sexual intercourse with him. For thousands of Lebanese Australians residing in Lebanon, the opportunity to return to Australia at any point provides a psychological safety net. Australia's law defines rape as "unlawful sexual act with another person by force; without their consent." In the face of such catastrophic ruin, the only option local residents had was to help. 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. This is probably Katter's most famous and funny video, wait until the end. Once you got into the zone where you are powerful and people are scared of you, you dont want to stop. I have no intention of attempting to justify my sentences. , updated Unidentified thieves broke into the headquarters of Lebanon's state news agency and stole a server containing its photo archive, officials say. He will remain a threat to the community. Deputy Commissioner for Investigations and Counter Terrorism Dave Hudson.Daniel Munoz 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. There was no application that I should do otherwise. He remained the dominant figure and was the person who directed everything that later happened on that night in the park at Greenacre. By One of the dead was Sarkis Abboud, 61 years old, and the second was his friend, Tony Yazbek, two years younger. Lebanese families across generations in both rural and urban areas, including changes over time in occupations, education, religion, community activities and family values. If you ever hear him speak, you would never believe it. Culture I hope that those who have been released do rehabilitate or, at the very least, that they do not re-offend. The assailants broke the door and its lock into the archive room. 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. But to this day Finnane is regularly asked about the Skaf case, sometimes by strangers, at social functions and on other unexpected occasions. 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". 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 crime was comparable to Lebanese gang rapes in Sydney. I thought she was a particularly brave young woman who refused to give in to any of these suggestions. His demeanour in the court room said that. He was the gang boss and the organiser of everything that happened. Crimes under Lebanese laws may not be considered offences in Australia. Why was the third victim plucked from a train? The other two were also fairly small, but with the sorts of faces that could easily be forgotten. Lebanon was still politically dysfunctional and rivalries had left it without a president for most of 2016. 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. Bilal Skaf was charged with every instance of forced sexual intercourse by anyone in the gang on the basis that he was an accessory before the fact to every crime and was just as responsible as the man who carried it out. Before we can solve it we need to understand it, he says, and Im not sure we do.. Australian Lebanese families. J., Noble, G. Poynting, S. and Tabar, P. (2000) Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime. 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. 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. TV Thats whats so disturbing., Lebanese-born educator Keysar Trad believes criminality in the community is a by-product of overly strict parents who expect their children to excel at school, and racism in the classroom and playground that prevents them from doing so. Lebanese organized crime syndicates generally are active globally, largely due to the mass Arab population. Neither Ghanem nor Hajeid gave evidence and their cases were run on the basis that the girls could not identify them but that, of course, became very difficult for them when Bilal Skaf gave evidence that placed them at the park. [1] Due to the vast international Arab diaspora and along with a certain amount of organized criminals active in their respective communities, the Beqaa Valley has become one of the most infamous marijuana and hashish exporting regions in the world. 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. 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 . Who could believe anyone would consent to being assaulted, robbed, abused and threatened? China Significant numbers of their families served in Australian forces during World War I. You cant fathom the despair and destruction., Kassis, an English teacher, is one of thousands of Beiruti residents who have been on the streets, cleaning the shopfronts and homes devastated by Tuesdays blast. 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