Falah Alkanaan accused of burning cellmate, murder threats

A man convicted of murder is on trial for allegedly pouring a hot water from a kettle on his cell mate and threatening to kill him during a dispute about religion in Goulburn prison.

An inmate at Goulburn Correctional Centre is on trial accused of burning his cellmate with hot water and threatening to kill him during an argument about religion.

Falah Alkanaan, 35, is on trial for assault occasioning actual bodily harm after pleading not guilty to the alleged incident on September 17 last year. Mr Alkanaan appeared via video link in Goulburn District Court on October 12 for the first day of the trial.

The alleged victim, Mohamad Ali Badr, told the court he and Mr Alkanaan were cellmates at the Goulburn jail for a few days before they got into a disagreement about their religious differences.

Mr Badr told the court his cellmate tried to persuade him to change his religious beliefs from Sunni to Shi’a Muslim, he had refused. Mr Badr told police Mr Alkanaan had threatened to kill him if he didn’t comply.

Goulburn Correctional Centre. Picture: Craig Dunlop

“‘You have to change brother or I’ll slaughter you’,” Mr Badr said he was told.

According to the alleged victim, Mr Alkanaan became enraged and swore at him before throwing the kettle of boiling water on him.

A correctional officer told the court he came to the cell after the emergency button was pushed and found Mr Alkanaan threatening to kill his cellmate.

“Get him out of my cell, if he doesn’t shut up, I’m going to kill him,” the correctional officer said he was told by Mr Alkanaan.

The officer told the court Mr Alkanaan was muttering threats and Mr Badr asked to leave the cell out of fear for his safety. Another correctional officer present at the time told the court Mr Badr’s right arm appeared burned and “was very red” with “the skin was coming off”.

While giving testimony on Tuesday, Mr Badr pushed up his sleeve to show the court his alleged burns from a year ago.

Mr Badr told the court he was concerned his cellmate would act on his threats because Mr Alkanaan “was always try to scare (him)”. The alleged victim told the court Mr Alkanaan had bragged about getting a reduced sentence for shooting a man in the head because of his mental health issues.

“He said ‘I’m going to stab you and they know I’m sick so I’ll get 10 years only’,” Mr Badr said.

The trial is being held at Goulburn District Court this week. Picture: Craig Dunlop

A police officer who attended the scene told the court she found a prison knife, known as a ‘shiv’, with a 20cm blade hidden in a slit in Mr Alkanaan’s rubber thong.

Mr Alkanaan’s lawyer Paul Townsend argued his client had not caused any harm to the alleged victim, who he claimed had burned himself due to mental health issues.

Mr Townsend told the court Mr Badr, who was detained at Christmas Island in 2013 after arriving in Australia from Egypt, had a history of threatening self harm, telling officers he wanted to set his cell on fire and “you’ll find me swinging here”.

However Crown prosecutor, Nerissa Keay, argued Mr Townsend’s reasoning was “prejudicial” and should be “seen in the context of someone who is in custody, and doesn’t like custody.”

Judge Julia Baly agreed the victim could have possibly injured himself.

“(If) he has a tendency to act on or threaten self harm, that makes it more likely that he committed this act on himself,” Judge Baly said.

However, she said she wasn’t able to put much weight on the claims of mental illness because Mr Badr had denied them under oath.

The court also heard Mr Alkanaan had given Mr Badr a tattoo of a sword (allegedly a Muslim symbol) days before the incident, which Mr Badr said was meant to symbolise there is no difference between their two denominations of Islam.

“We are all one,” Mr Badr said.

The trial is expected to conclude at Goulburn District Court on Friday.

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