Bassam Hamzy represents himself in controversial court win, regaining right to lawyer visits

“Articulate” Brothers 4 Life gang founder Bassam Hamzy has had another victory while representing himself in court, winning back one of his rights.

The state’s most notorious inmate Bassam Hamzy has again represented himself in court and won, regaining his right to have unmonitored phone calls with lawyers despite having previously allegedly used them to do his bidding on the outside.

Hamzy, 43, has previously been convicted of running major criminal enterprises like the feared Brothers 4 Life gang from behind bars, and is currently awaiting trial over an alleged drug ring he is accused of using his solicitor to help facilitate.

Bassam Hamzy has again represented himself in court and won, regaining his right to have unmonitored phone calls with lawyers. Picture: Supplied

In response to his penchant for crime Correctives Services NSW cracked down heavily on Hamzy, who is regarded as an “extreme high risk restricted inmate” – the highest security classification in the state.

A major focus of the crackdown was listening in to Hamzy’s private phone calls, even with his legal team, and refusing him one-on-one access to his solicitors.

Hamzy took Corrective Services to court and while he was initially unsuccessful in the NSW Supreme Court, three justices of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday ruled that the restrictions were unlawful.

Chief Justice Tom Bathurst, Justice John Basten and Justice Mark Leeming agreed that Corrective Services NSW could not refuse visits by lawyers to extreme high risk restricted inmates for any reason.

Previously, Hamzy had only been allowed to “make telephone calls to lawyers … (who had been) approved as legal contacts on the Offender Telephone System”, the court heard.

The decision comes despite Hamzy allegedly having previously used lawyers to do his criminal bidding on the outside. Picture: NSW Police

The court heard that between February 1 and June 28 2016, six of Hamzy’s phone calls were terminated by Correctives staff.

On six occasions the reason was that he was “speaking language other than English” and once that he spoke to a “third party”.

In addition to appealing the restrictions on his phone calls and legal visits, Hamzy also contended that not being able to speak in a language other than English was “racist”.

However all three Court of Appeal Justices ruled this was not a breach of the Racial Discrimination Act.

An “extreme high risk” inmate, Hamzy has been held at Goulburn Supermax prison since 2013. Picture: Gary Ramage

It is not the first time Hamzy has had success representing himself in court.

Having already spent decades behind bars, and with at least another 13 years to go, he regularly finds time to study the law and prepare articulate and educated arguments.

Judges have previously made comment that he is both ‘articulate’ in presenting himself and his arguments.

In a statement, Correctives Services NSW told The Daily Telegraph: “Corrective Services NSW is considering the Judgement from Hamzy v Commissioner of Corrective Services NSW (2022).”