Kodar Faytrouni, Abud Elkerdi face sentence hearing after kidnapping man at Guildford

Wild footage of a kidnapping in Sydney’s west, sparked by a family dispute shows a new groom’s terror as he is manhandled. See the video.

Shocking video has revealed the moment kidnappers placed their victim in a headlock and kicked him, after they travelled from Melbourne to Sydney in a bid to end the terrified man’s marriage to one of their sisters.

The footage, filmed by one of the kidnappers, was played in Parramatta District Court on Thursday, when two members of the offending group faced court to be sentenced.

However, they were forced to wait to learn their fate after one of them, Abud Elkerdi, collapsed during the lunch adjournment.

The 38-year-old was taken to Westmead Hospital, suffering from what his lawyer described to the court as chest pains.

Elkerdi appeared alongside 29-year-old Kodar Faytrouni after they, along with Safwan Hussein, 41, and Ali Hamad, 35, pleaded guilty to charges of taking or detaining a person in company.

A screenshot of video showing a January 2023 kidnapping in Guildford.

The quartet committed the kidnapping on January 11, when they travelled to Guildford and captured 25-year-old Younis Younis.

Faytrouni, aged in his late 20s, initiated the offence because he believed the victim — his brother-in-law — had only married his sister to secure a visa to live in Australia.

A screenshot of footage showing Safwan Hussein placing kidnapping victim Younis Younis in a headlock after he was kidnapped from Guildford.

Video, filmed by Hamad and played to the court, showed Hussein putting the victim in a headlock while Faytrouni sat next to him in a car wearing a white Nike hoodie.

The offenders appeared to be yelling in Arabic as the trapped victim sat terrified in the BMW sedan.

Shorter footage, recorded on Hamad’s phone, also captured Faytrouni kicking the victim at his mother’s home on Guildford Rd.

During the order, the victim was also driven to another property on Constance St, Guildford.

Kodar Faytrouni captured in a video of the kidnapping.

Several hours later, police stopped the car near Chetwynd Rd, putting an end to the incident.

During sentencing submissions on Thursday, Faytrouni’s lawyer told the court his client’s low intellect was to blame for the “bizarre” turn of events.

However, a bemused Judge Stephen Hanley said Faytrouni’s motive was based on him not accepting who his sister chose to marry.

“It shows a complete failure to allow this woman to select who she wants to have as her partner,’’ he said, adding the men were misogynistic.

Abud Elkerdi leaves Parramatta District Court in March.

The judge rejected suggestions Faytrouni’s role was below the mid-range of objective seriousness, saying the crime had been planned and targeted.

“They seem to be able to find him, break into his house, extract him from his house, assault him in the car, force him to make a divorce according to Islamic law while his partner listens on the phone with a distressed condition … and you want to say this is below mid-range?’’ he said.

“This man and his comrades seem to have a strange attitude towards women.’’

Police arrested one of the offenders. Picture: NSW Police

Judge Hanley said Faytrouni had been capable of rounding up a group of friends from Melbourne and instigating the crime.

“I’m sure they weren’t talking about what happened at the local football game,’’ he said.

“He’s the one who started it, he’s the one who recruited and yet I’m supposed to accept he’s got some sort of intellectual disability, that he’s incapable of doing any of this, is that right?’’

His lawyer said he had his driver’s licence but could not problem solve and had a low IQ.

Police make an arrest over the kidnapping.

Crown prosecutor Adam Muddle told the court Faytrouni blamed his offence on the responsibility he felt towards his sister because he did not believe her marriage was genuine.

“The Crown submits that this is a quite a degree of insight and a degree of knowledge in terms of the motivations in the reasons behind this offending,’’ he said.

The court heard Elkerdi had played a less serious role in the kidnapping, escorting the victim from the Guildford home and sitting next to him in the car.

It also heard Elkerdi had a low IQ – in the bottom 0.01 per cent of peers – and relied on his wife to get dressed.

Judge Hanley challenged whether his low intellect was an excuse for the kidnapping.

“Too intellectually disabled to plan anything, it’s extraordinary,’’ he said.

“So, for the entire trip between Melbourne and Sydney, he just thought he was coming up to have a talk with this man, did he?”

The cases of Faytrouni and Elkerdi were adjourned until December 20, while Hamad and Hussein are due to appear again December 13.

A fifth man, Imad Fatrouni, 56, has pleaded not guilty to taking or detaining a person in company with intent to obtain advantage.

He is due to stand trial in April.