At no point, however, did he identify the men in the red van. 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. 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. [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. By Ghanem's convictions for his participation in the attacks that were the subject of the first trial, however, were confirmed. [7], Last edited on 24 February 2023, at 19:36, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Rising crime in northern Bekaa Valley hurting Hezbollah", "THE WORLD'S LARGEST DRUG FIELD -- (BY DENNIS EISENBERG) (Extension of Remarks - July 27, 1990)", "Schattenseiten der Einwanderergesellschaft - Brutale Familienbande", "Miri-Clan: Eine Familie, tief verstrickt ins Verbrechen - DIE WELT", "Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area of South America", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lebanese_mafia&oldid=1141378811, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 19:36. 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. 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. Some experienced criminal lawyers also expressed disagreements with Finnane's sentences, claiming he had no regard to the Skaf brothers' rehabilitation. entertainment There were others who have never been brought to trial. France Why was the third victim plucked from a train? Significant numbers of their families served in Australian forces during World War I. 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. While Lebanese settled all over Australia, the majority have consistently settled in NSW and particularly in Sydney. This is probably Katter's most famous and funny video, wait until the end. And that it happened because of incompetence and corruption.. 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. Skaf was a small man, rather thin, with black hair and a sharp face. 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. 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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. Without Bilal Skaf leading them, perhaps they will come to see that there is a way forward. He will remain a threat to the community. 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). Arab Book For most of his career, Finnane was not well known outside legal circles but that changed rapidly and forever when he presided over the Skaf rape trials. 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. 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. A 44-year-old woman killed two Lebanese residing in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia. The main activities of Arab gangs in Australia are narcotics and weapons trafficking, extortion, prostitution, car theft and money laundering. new The complainant, who had been sexually assaulted by fourteen men something like forty times over four hours, could not identify him. That is not the law. Conviction of Skaf was inevitable. Lebanon's national archives are located in a building that houses two ministries. 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. Deputy Commissioner for Investigations and Counter Terrorism Dave Hudson.Daniel Munoz The Australian Embassy in Beirut, opened in 1967, was the third Australian Embassy to be established in the Middle East. trot The first occurred from 1880 to 1947 when many Maronite, Melkite and Orthodox Christians migrated. I then summed up the entire case, dealing with all the evidence, all the arguments and the law that applied. In 1996, 72 per cent of Lebanese in Australia lived in Sydney. Bilal Skaf and up to eleven other men who were never identified, then turned up in a van sometime later. For Melbourne-born Alia Melki, that urge to help hit her as immediately as the blast itself. As the French president Emmanuel Macron toured the devastated scenes in Beirut on Thursday, a Lebanese woman could be heard urging the president to not give money to the corrupt government. Macron replied, I guarantee you, this aid will not go to corrupt hands.. 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. Political overview. 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. I merely imposed sentences on a number of offenders. Migrants are, on the whole, far less likely to commit serious crimes than the Australian born population; A small number of migrant groups defy this trend and have higher rates of crime; When asking why some groups have higher rates of crime we cannot simply equate criminality with the culture. 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 They could not suggest the girls consented to sexual intercourse because they claimed not to have been there. Australia enjoys friendly bilateral relations with Lebanon, underpinned by strong people-to-people links. They made very little attempt to cover their tracks. 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. id send all the ones in Australia back to lebanon and then drop a bomb. The three of them lived with their parents in houses in the suburbs surrounding Bankstown. Lebanese Crime, Official Cowardice In Australia. Bilal Skaf sat throughout the sentencing process looking as if he could not care less about any of it. 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. This means that many other gangs of boys are doing the same crimes. 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. The existence of criminal activity among these communities is not the issue. 'Many of the victims, I am sure, will be affected by these crimes for the whole of their lives. Lebanon was still politically dysfunctional and rivalries had left it without a president for most of 2016. 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. But with drive-by shootings, the nature of criminality in Sydney has changed. 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. Australian police have arrested more than 200 people involved in organised crime after infiltrating an encrypted messaging app that opened up nearly 25 million messages about "industrial-scale". I was always hopeful that the people I sentenced in other cases might see the point of rehabilitation and, undoubtedly, some of them did. This offence carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment. 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. they deserve nothing less and we'd be making the world a better place. TV There was another man, later identified as Y, who took part in the events on this night. Who could believe anyone would consent to being assaulted, robbed, abused and threatened? The assailants broke the door and its lock into the archive room. A number of the men penetrated her vagina with their fingers. Stars: Travis Fimmel, Jemmason Power, Talijah Blackman-Corowa, Eden Cassady Votes: 2,921 3. 'What the Skaf gang did was to enable multiple men to defile and degrade four young women. 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. The girls had no idea where they were and were obviously terrified. That much was confirmed by Lieutenant Colonel Rony Ghanem of Lebanons Internal Security Force. In my view, all of these men remain a continuing threat to the Sydney community and particularly to young women. All the windows were broken, the doors blown up, she says. "Lebanese media often help enshrine the idea that men can get away with these crimes," said Hayat Mirshad, co-director at Fe-Male, a local feminist group. Lebanon's parliament has scrapped a law under which a rapist could be exempt from punishment if he married his victim, state media report. The gang also crash-tackled, punched and kicked these girls and stole items of jewellery that they had on them. 3. When people have lost their homes and families, you dont think twice. 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. A large number of former Lebanese citizens immigrated to several major German cities under political asylum and refugee status. Arab world Yet, the new gangland war fails to capture the imagination. What we found was that in a matter of weeks they were excelling the other kids in school. Indictable offenses are heard in a superior court in the presences of a jury. 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. The trial was quite tense. Finally, the rural areas of Sydney are home to small-time gangs who act as enforcers for the bigger gangs in the city. 'One thing was obvious to me - Bilal Skaf wanted the victims to talk about what happened, to pass on their terror. Those involved in these crimes committed them between 10 August and 30 August 2000 on three separate occasions. Skaf was talking on a mobile phone to other people in Arabic. 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. Major Joyce Harmer of the Salvation Army was in court as a support person for her and I am sure this helped her greatly when she was giving evidence. 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. 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. In the third trial, the accused were Bilal Skaf, Mohammed Skaf, Mohammed Ghanem and Mahmoud Chami. 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. Were the subject of the victims to talk about what happened, to pass on their terror what. 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