Thursday, January 26, 2006
MAN STABBED, BLOCKED, STOMPED
The things you’ve got to do to get arrested in Sydney:
A magistrate has grilled police about why they released two men allegedly involved in a reprisal attack immediately after the Cronulla Beach riot, in which a “hapless victim” was left with a fractured eye socket after being set upon by a carload of men.
Mohammed Eid, 19, and Wael Tahan, 20, were on bail for other offences at the time of the alleged attack. They were detained by police in the early hours of December 12, but were released after having their clothes taken for forensic examination and being interviewed.
They. Were. Released. And what were the alleged circumstances which initially caused police to detain them?
Both men, along with two others still being sought by police, are accused of an attack on a Blakehurst man in Hume Road, Cronulla. A police report alleges the pair stabbed the victim and bashed him around the head with a block of concrete, before stomping on his head and body.
This is bewildering, and not just to us reading about it:
The magistrate refused bail, saying he was “bewildered” by the decision not to charge them at the time. He said he would have refused them bail then.
Hilarious line from Eid’s lawyer, who claims the arrests have since taken place because ethnic crime is “a political hot potato”. Which more likely explains why the pair weren’t arrested in the first place.