Noticias desde Australia

The Courier-Mail: Brothers change rape plea to guilty [10mar06]

TWO Brisbane brothers already convicted this year of a brutal rape yesterday pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to a second vicious attack on a teenager. Afsheen Kashef Hussien, 26, and Azhar Zuhayr Hussien, 21, had pleaded not guilty in January to raping the 19-year-old, but yesterday changed their plea after learning their two accomplices would testify against them at trial.
The Hussien brothers were each convicted on their own confessions of one count of deprivation of liberty and 10 counts of rape, arising from the attack on February 13, 2005. Afsheen was also convicted of one count of stealing.
Earlier this week, brothers Zaak Imitiaz Ali, 22, and Zane Iftiaz Ali, 23, were sentenced to 8½ years’ jail after pleading guilty to the same offences, and were declared serious violent offenders.
Their sentences were reduced during closed court proceedings – subsequently made public yesterday – by Judge Warren Howell, because the men identified the Hussien brothers to police and were expected to give evidence against them at a trial set down for May.
The court was told that about 9.45pm on February 13 last year, Zaak Ali picked up the 19-year-old sex worker from Fortitude Valley and drove her to a Mt Coot-tha car park. The other three men, who had been hidden in the back of the van, revealed themselves and she was threatened with a screwdriver. An attempt to escape was thwarted.
The woman, who has since felt compelled to leave Brisbane, had been ordered to undress and repeatedly orally, vaginally and anally raped for more than an hour. She was dumped at another car park where the men told her they were “finished” with her.
Six months earlier the Hussien brothers had carried out a similar attack, while armed with a knife, on a 22-year-old woman at another Mt Coot-tha car park. They were convicted by a jury of six counts of rape after a trial in January.
Crown prosecutor Michael Byrne yesterday submitted the Hussien brothers were the main protagonists in “calculated and predatory” attacks and should be sentenced to 17 years’ jail. A serious violent offence declaration – requiring them to serve 80 per cent of their sentence – would be automatic for a term of more than 10 years’ jail. The court heard the strong Crown case against the men included DNA evidence, their conviction for the earlier attack and the testimony of the Ali brothers. [...]

Como ya venimos diciendo aquí desde hace unos meses, los ataques sexuales de musulmanes contra no-musulmanas son demasiado frecuentes.

Hace poco también escribía AMDG que los musulmanes moderados no estaban colaborando en las pesquisas sobre el 7/J. Parece que los musulmanes moderados australianos tampoco lo están haciendo con los disturbios de Cronulla.

No Middle Eastern aid in riot suspects hunt – National – smh.com.au

POLICE have received “little or no information” from the Middle Eastern community in finding men who carried out reprisal attacks after the Cronulla riots.

Their comment comes after half the 20 suspected rioters whose photos were splashed across the media yesterday were identified and at least three men were charged. Two fathers called detectives from Strike Force Enoggera, set up to investigate the Cronulla race riot and revenge attacks, to report their sons after seeing images on television and in newspapers.
At least five of the 20 suspected Caucasian rioters came forward voluntarily, said the head of Enoggera, Detective Superintendent Ken McKay. The rest of the 10 were identified by members of the public and would be pursued, he said.

Superintendent McKay said it was pleasing that detectives had received “numerous phone calls from people saying that is so-and-so” after seeing the photos, but that he had received “little or no information” about revenge attackers of Middle Eastern extraction seen in two grainy videos. The Police Minister, Carl Scully, yesterday accused “Middle Eastern Australians” of harbouring “grubs” who “should be in jail”.
But one leader, Keysar Trad, said the criticisms were unfair. “The community leaders don’t generally mix with the criminal element and we don’t recognise these people,” said Mr Trad, who heads the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia.
Police also renewed appeals for witnesses to the December 11 stabbing of a 23-year-old man at Woolooware Golf Club. He was repeatedly stabbed after an argument with a group of men of Middle Eastern appearance.

The Courier-Mail: Clerics urged to use English [09mar06]

ISLAMIC leaders should push Muslim clergy to preach in English, Australia’s Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has said. Mr Ruddock has told a London audience that Australia’s chief mufti, the Sydney-based cleric Sheik Taj el din al-Hilaly, who always uses a translator, actually spoke good English in private. “He does speak English, but he doesn’t feel confident . . . always speaking English to a broader audience,” Mr Ruddock said, adding that a language barrier was a problem with the community as a whole. Mr Ruddock, in London for high-level anti-terrorism talks, was told by British Islamic leaders that moves to make English the language of the mosque had come from within the British Muslim community. Moderate Muslims are fed up with fiery clerics railing in tongues that many inside the mosque and in the wider community do not understand.

The Courier-Mail: ‘De-programming’ same as torture [09mar06]

CIVIL libertarians have said a proposal by the Federal Police chief to “de-program” terrorists is tantamount to torture, but Muslim groups say it may have merit.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty has said Indonesia is using a former Jemaah Islamiah leader, Malaysian-born Nasir bin Abbas, to help in the deprogramming of convicted terrorists. The cleric attempts to turn extremists to a more moderate faith and provides information on terrorist operations to Indonesian authorities.

The process is also understood to have been used in Singapore, the United Kingdom, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Mr Keelty said the idea, which he likened to drug rehabilitation, has been raised at a policy level in Australia during talks about anti-terrorist control orders.

HT: A Western Heart: An Australian news roundup. An Australian news roundup (son dos posts diferentes con el mismo título)