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. Under a large number of refugees, there were also several extended clans that already in Lebanon were deeply entrenched in organized crime. To give you an idea of what to expect, here are some rent averages for the most popular cities in Australia. But with drive-by shootings, the nature of criminality in Sydney has changed. 'Many of the victims, I am sure, will be affected by these crimes for the whole of their lives. Skaf was talking on a mobile phone to other people in Arabic. 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. [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. The children of refugees who fled Lebanon's civil war for peaceful Australia in the 1970s form a. majority of Australian militants fighting in the Middle East, according to about a dozen counter-terrorism officials, security experts and Muslim community members. The existence of criminal activity among these communities is not the issue. You do what you can.. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Praying for the injured, missing & dead, she wrote on Twitter. However, the website of the Voice of Lebanon radio station in Melbourne, mentioned important information, accompanied by two pictures of the dead, and a summary of the information that the offender was a friend of the assassinated Tony Yazbek and she has a 10-year-old daughter, who lives with her mothers grandmother, and that the late Sarkis Abboud was a victim of his presence with his friend. At that time, according to the radio. 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. 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. You just want more, Basha says. Skaf did all the talking and suggested a trip in a car and puffing some marijuana. Bilal Skaf did most of the talking to the girls and called himself 'Adam'. One upstanding group of Lebanese males got sentences up to 49 years prison for kidnapping girls on the street and raping them. 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. And that it happened because of incompetence and corruption.. Some experienced criminal lawyers also expressed disagreements with Finnane's sentences, claiming he had no regard to the Skaf brothers' rehabilitation. He also clicked his fingers towards my court officers, ordering them to get him water. I was always hopeful that the people I sentenced in other cases might see the point of rehabilitation and, undoubtedly, some of them did. According to exclusive statistics from the armed crime squad, there has been a five-fold increase in non-fatal shootings in the north-west in four years and the region now sees almost two thirds of Victoria's non-fatal shootings. 'All of them were examples of depravity and cruelty. Sexual intercourse without consent was the principal crime contemplated and committed. 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. Bilal Skaf was one of the people who then approached the victim whom he grabbed by the hair. As a policy, multiculturalism was introduced by immigration minister Al . 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. In the early 1980s, as a young detective I was attached to the Drug Squad at . They found him dead in his apartment in a building in the same area, while Abboud died in an ambulance while she was transporting him to Nearby hospital. If a person who is guilty, pleads guilty, anxiety and stress to the victims is removed and it is reasonable to give lesser sentences. 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.. The damage is extensive, like all the other apartments in the area. A lot of the racism against Lebanese people in Australia however dates to before 9/11. All rights reserved. Once Lebanese kids gets involved in gangs, theyre killed or in prison before they get a chance to grow up., There is no data available on the prevalence of criminality in Sydneys Lebanese community because people who are arrested are not legally required to give information on their ethnicity or heritage. Football 33. Latest news All except Bilal Skaf are now out of jail. Mr Inbetween (2018-2021) TV-MA | 30 min | Crime, Drama 8.6 Rate this 'There were other sexual assault cases I heard, some of children, some of adult women,' Finnane writes. Another curious feature in the trial was Skaf's bold assertion that he was a man of good character. One of the dead was Sarkis Abboud, 61 years old, and the second was his friend, Tony Yazbek, two years younger. Bilal Skaf sat throughout the sentencing process looking as if he could not care less about any of it. So the problem we have now in Sydney is a ramification of what has been going on in Lebanon.. 'I have thought of this over the years,' Finane writes. In the third trial, the accused were Bilal Skaf, Mohammed Skaf, Mohammed Ghanem and Mahmoud Chami. Among them is one Australian, with as many as 300,000 made homeless. 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. 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. The last person to plead guilty was a friend of Mohammed Skaf. Australia 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. After they were raped, the victims were just abandoned. Crime families exchange gunfire and trade narcotics with apparent immunity; arrestees in Bankstown are 60 times more likely to use heroin than those in other parts in Australia. The worst part was that these filthy criminals were in prison and the rapes kept happening. Surprised by Lebanese officials audaciously asking for Australian money for personal reasons, Bartlem refused to process their requests further. The two victims were schoolgirls who were wandering around a shopping centre at Chatswood on 10 August 2000 about nine o'clock at night. 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 most common crimes involve physical altercations, trespassing, burglary, and damaging public or private property. Crime 0 120 46.11 Crime rates in Australia Safety in Australia Contributors: 7102 Last update: February 2023 These data are based on perceptions of visitors of this website in the past 3 years. Five computers were stolen along with the servers, Lebanese TV channel LBCI reported. Knowing this much corruption gives me more reason not to leave Lebanon. At the time, Mohammed Skaf was still a schoolboy and attended the same school as the victim, to whom he was known as 'Sam'. The devastation has profoundly touched Australias 250,000-strong Lebanese community, with the immediate sense of despair now transitioning to a desperate urge to assist. 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. The identity of the four men in the red van has never properly been revealed. business Once you got into the zone where you are powerful and people are scared of you, you dont want to stop. I cant tell what some of the things are in the photos, what they once were. World If you live in Melbourne, you are at moderate risk of theft and breaking. A 44-year-old woman killed two Lebanese residing in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia. Dec 13, 2005. Frank Hakim, who emigrated to Australia at the age of 20 or so, was the first prominent Lebanese criminal. Australian society and government were mostly doing this until Bowen's speech. My apartment, like others close to the blast, is . A number of the men penetrated her vagina with their fingers. 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. Conviction of Skaf was inevitable. 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. 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. Unidentified thieves broke into the headquarters of Lebanon's state news agency and stole a server containing its photo archive, officials say. I remanded all of them in custody. In 1996, 72 per cent of Lebanese in Australia lived in Sydney. 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. 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. By
Those involved in these crimes committed them between 10 August and 30 August 2000 on three separate occasions. 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. Will this be the catalyst that prompts the move home? When people have lost their homes and families, you dont think twice. 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. The first occurred from 1880 to 1947 when many Maronite, Melkite and Orthodox Christians migrated. Murder was not in his mind; terrifying people generally was.'. By
"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. These two girls did not expect to be driven over the Harbour Bridge. My views on sentence were not those of the judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal, but their sentences prevail. 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. Relatives have legally . ASIAN ORGANISED CRIME IN AUSTRALIA A Discussion Paper by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority February 1995 (return to table of contents) 5. Shimbiris VIP 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. 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. Drive-bys were virtually unheard of in Sydney until the mid-1990s, when the sons and grandsons of hardworking Lebanese migrants emerged as serious players in a world of organized crime, hitherto dominated by Vietnamese and Calabrian gangs. This trial concluded on 11 July 2002 and concerned events of 12 August 2000, only two nights after the attacks on the two girls from Chatswood. USA The sheer scale of it, and that it sounds like it was completely avoidable. Why did those who joined him, become involved? 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. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. China 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. Sports 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! When they got into the white van, the two girls discovered the presence of the other two men. Present governor of the State of NSW is a distinguished Lebanese-Christian woman. [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. UAE Killing and shooting and illegal activity have become part of daily life. Skaf used condoms and threw them on the ground. 'During the sentencing process at the end of the Skaf trials, I expressed the view that what this gang did was worse than murder. 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. Terror in Sydney: The Unspeakable Crimes of Bilal Skaf's Lebanese Rape Gang (Crime Documentary) He did not believe he would be caught. The young girl was subjected to extensive questioning by counsel for each of the accused and repeatedly it was suggested to her that she had consented to everything and/or was exaggerating or lying. 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. 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. Arab Book What we found was that in a matter of weeks they were excelling the other kids in school. Lebanese people have become integrated the most in Australian society. The other two were also fairly small, but with the sorts of faces that could easily be forgotten. Ukraine 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. Counsel for each of the other accused, as well as the Crown, then attacked Bilal Skaf in cross-examination, suggesting he was a liar. The same trial process occurred as happened in the first trial and during my summing up I made the same remarks about the entitlement of a woman to say no. 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. 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.
I merely imposed sentences on a number of offenders. In the witness box, she clutched a small doll in her hands and gave firm and clear evidence. 'I do not think it is correct. Lebanese organized crime syndicates generally are active globally, largely due to the mass Arab population. I gave that consent. The 1995 NSW Legislative Council standing committee on social issues reported that while Lebanese-Australian youth comprise 0.9% of . That was an attraction, too. It is a common matter during the process of sentencing criminal offenders that their counsel would present psychological evidence, sometimes psychiatric evidence and other evidence to create as strong a subjective case for the offender as could be presented. 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. I came to my apartment to see the damage. 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. What was it that caused Bilal Skaf to carefully plan this series of attacks on young women in Sydney? News Agency With all of us getting used to working on Zoom and Slack, its become easier to work with people from different cities.. The people in the white van went through the city and stopped at a McDonald's in Stanmore. Im Lebanese Australian and Im proud of both parts of my identity. 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!' 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. 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. 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. 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. Why did the gang first of all go to a shopping centre at Chatswood? There was another man, later identified as Y, who took part in the events on this night. Criminal organizations however often transcend religious and cultural barriers, with members of the Sunni communities all involved in the same criminal organizations.[3]. 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 . The four men in this other car all raped this unfortunate young girl, who was then hosed down until she was soaking wet and forced out of the car that she was in near the Catholic Club at Lidcombe. I then had to give them quite complex directions about the facts in the trial and the law, which has its complexities. 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. 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 press was also prevented from providing any likenesses or descriptions of the accused or their racial origins. There was also evidence that each of the accused and the men in the red van abused the girls, calling them 'sluts' and threatened retribution on them if either of them had VD or AIDS. He extended his criminal activities and eventually became known as "the Lebanese . new 11:06 EST 27 May 2018 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. Those who pleaded guilty, were given lesser sentences than those who pleaded not guilty, because the law provided for this. 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. 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. 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