He will remain a threat to the community. But after seeing a close friend covered with petrol and set alight, he turned over a new leaf and began writing The Combination, a film about Lebanese schoolchildren who get caught up with gangs that won critical acclaim on release in 2010. He later pleaded guilty to some of the offences and when he did, I directed that he not be identified by his name. health Ukraine 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. If the value is 0, it means it is perceived as very low, and if the value is 100, it means it is perceived as very high. 26 May . Bilal Skaf did most of the talking to the girls and called himself 'Adam'. 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. When they got into the white van, the two girls discovered the presence of the other two men. The passion is there and so is the willingness to help, Rebecca Maakasa, a 23-year-old Melburnian, says. The former ambassador is no stranger to Lebanese corruption, having fielded astonishing requests from Lebanese officials in his time there seeking Australian aid money for self-fulfilling purposes. Subsequent migration was steady until an influx occurred surrounding the Arab . 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. Within these neighbourhoods lies the ravaged home of award-winning Lebanese-Australian journalist Rania Abouzeid. 2. 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. Sports J., Noble, G. Poynting, S. and Tabar, P. (2000) Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime. Criminal organizations however often transcend religious and cultural barriers, with members of the Sunni communities all involved in the same criminal organizations.[3]. live broadcast His counsel acknowledged the force of what I had said but again said that he would be presenting no evidence. I merely imposed sentences on a number of offenders. Expat families: 3.413 USD. But the central bank, Banque du Liban, led by former Merrill Lynch banker Riad Salameh . But to this day Finnane is regularly asked about the Skaf case, sometimes by strangers, at social functions and on other unexpected occasions. These two girls did not expect to be driven over the Harbour Bridge. Perhaps the offenders did not believe any of the victims would ever tell the police. They are also willing to purchase from Chinese importers and to wholesale to other groups, such as Romanian and Lebanese dealers. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Life cannot. rancho bernardo country club membership cost; About. Average rent in Canberra. Often different rival criminal families are interlocked in feuds, resulting in a fair amount of violence. 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. Learn how your comment data is processed. Look what happened in Germany in the 1940s., Selda Dagistanli, a lecturer in criminology at the University of Western Sydney, agrees that, When you attach criminal behavior to ethnicity, thats racist, and it makes you question the motivation of the people saying it., New South WalesPolice Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas says the problem in Bankstown and other parts of southwestern Sydney is not as bad as it seems. A 44-year-old woman killed two Lebanese residing in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia. A mobile phone was then used by someone in this group to secure the attendance of another group who arrived in a car. I consider my sentences imposed on the members of this gang were warranted. Lebanese Migration to Australia There have been three main waves of immigration from Lebanon to Australia. To condemn the racialisation of crime is not to deny that there are Lebanese Australians or Vietnamese Australians who commit crimes. 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.. The victim was then taken by car to a car park near the Bankstown Trotting Club where she was vaginally raped once and orally raped twice. In the mid-1960s he obtained the protection of Lennie McPherson and proceeded to provide protection himself to Lebanese and other ethnic gaming clubs. . Trad thinks the problem can be nipped in the bud by changing the way schools deal with Lebanese delinquents. He did not believe he would be caught. 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.'. 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. Authorities have stopped Australians and Australian-Lebanese dual nationals, including mothers with children, from leaving Lebanon. Luckily, a man came around the corner, saw her plight and approached her. 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!' A number of the men penetrated her vagina with their fingers. The press was also prevented from providing any likenesses or descriptions of the accused or their racial origins. "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. The girls in the car were very concerned at this point, but too scared to get out and run away. But material losses, even huge painful ones, are things that one day can be replaced. Lebanese Crime, Official Cowardice In Australia. business ShiaChat.com may be unavailable periodically Saturday night to Sunday evening while we migrate to new servers and perform some necessary updates. 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. I like Middle Eastern people. 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. There was another man, later identified as Y, who took part in the events on this night. 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 33. Skaf was talking on a mobile phone to other people in Arabic. 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. It is across the street from the Lebanese central bank in Beirut, the Associated Press reported. 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. That sentence was modified several times upon appeal. 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. The assailants broke the door and its lock into the archive room. The worst part was that these filthy criminals were in prison and the rapes kept happening. The first found that Middle-Eastern Australians reported more discrimination compared with non-Middle-Eastern Australians. It is also possible that there were other victims who have never come forward. 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. . He remained the dominant figure and was the person who directed everything that later happened on that night in the park at Greenacre. And an otherwise law-abiding majority erect a wall of silence when dealing with police they regularly accuse and sue for thuggery and racial profiling. Much of that support is being directed virtually to a grassroots online fundraising drive based in London. However, these crimes were of secondary importance. 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. Criminal organizations are mostly based around extended crime families with a large number of associates from their community. The geographic heartland of Australias 100,000-strong Lebanese community, its red brick apartments and cement-sheet homes are peppered with mosques, musallas and churches. You do what you can.. 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. [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. Skaf and the members of this gang clearly wanted public recognition for what they had done. Relatives have legally . Mohammed Skaf was charged, like his brother Bilal, with two counts of sexual intercourse without consent because he had arranged for the girl to be made available to his brother and others to have sexual intercourse with the victim. What made this trial startlingly different from most rape trials of which I was aware were four matters: 1. I thought she was a particularly brave young woman who refused to give in to any of these suggestions. 'I reject this complaint as well,' he writes. I remanded all of them in custody. Finnane dealt with sadistic rapists before and after the Skaf cases. I think the sentences struck a chord with the public generally because the attacks were predatory and carefully planned. 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. 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. Another curious feature in the trial was Skaf's bold assertion that he was a man of good character. 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. These are questions that will probably never be answered. 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. 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. 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