Omar Haouchar seeks bail variation on choking charge

A recently arrested high profile gangland figure’s brother who is charged with choking his ex in a Sydney street cannot go anywhere without telling his parole officer first, a court has heard.

Omar Haouchar at Downing Centre Local Court on November 23 2023.

A high profile underworld figure’s brother who is charged with choking a woman while he was on parole for an unrelated violent offence is currently having his every move monitored, a court has heard.

Omar Haouchar was charged in April this year after police allege shocked witnesses saw him choke his model ex-partner on a leafy North Sydney street after an argument in his car.

He has pleaded not guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm and intentional choking without consent.

Haouchar is still on parole for armed robbery, break and enter and criminal group offences for which he served six-and-a-half years behind bars.

Under his current parole conditions, the 30-year-old cannot set foot outside his home without first advising his parole officer of his intended movements.

Omar Haouchar in April 2023.

At Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, Haouchar’s solicitor sought to have his daily reporting and curfew deleted because he is currently subject to electronic ankle monitoring by parole.

“The curfew, we say, is obsolete – he effectively can’t leave his home without notifying his parole officer a week in advance,” the solicitor told Magistrate Susan Horan.

“If (the ankle monitoring bracelet) was to be removed, the (reporting) condition can then come back on, effectively.”

Haouchar is subject to further strict conditions including not being within 1km of international points of departure, not using drugs or alcohol, and not using encrypted phone applications.

Ms Horan granted the variation to delete Haouchar’s daily reporting only as long as his ankle monitoring bracelet is imposed by parole.

However, the magistrate declined to delete the curfew, noting the alleged offence occurred at night – instead granting Haouchar the opportunity to be out after curfew if he is in the company of his current partner.

The assault and choking charges were intended to be heard at Manly Local Court in September before the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions took carriage of the matter.

The matter is now being managed through the early applicable guilty plea program, which gives defendants charged with serious offences more time to make an early plea which can attract a discount on sentence.

The matter is next in for a brief status mention on December 7.

Haouchar’s brother Bilal was recently arrested in Lebanon as part of far-reaching international investigations into alleged organised crime.