Ibrahim nephew Abraham Sayour’s charge dropped on technicality
A criminal charge has been dropped against Sam Ibrahim’s nephew, who police initially claimed tried to smuggle a phone for his uncle into jail.
Police & Courts
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A criminal charge has been dropped against Sam Ibrahim’s nephew, who police initially claimed tried to smuggle a phone into jail for the ex-bikie boss hidden inside a Nike sports bag.
Abraham Sayour, 24, pleaded not guilty to unlawfully bringing the iPhone 11 Max into Long Bay Correctional Complex on September 28 last year.
Ibrahim had been ordered to relocate to Villawood Detention Immigration Centre, but received approval to get civilian clothes from the outside before moving, the police facts show.
The facts state correctional officers allowed Sayour into Long Bay Correctional Complex with clothes and the mobile phone.
Police claimed he walked to Long Bay Hospital on the grounds and did not tell the reception staff a phone was hidden inside the bag for his uncle, before handing it over.
They claimed Sayour was captured on CCTV ignoring signs at the facility saying it was an offence to bring phones inside the prison hospital, while sliding it down the phone box down the side of the bag, the facts show.
On Wednesday a police prosecutor withdrew the charge against Sayour in the NSW Downing Centre Courthouse.
It is understood the charge was dropped because Sayour had been technically allowed into the complex by the guards with the mobile phone.
Sayour’s lawyer Abbas Soukie said his client was pleased.
“It is regrettable that Mr Sayour was put at the expense of having to engage lawyers to defend a criminal charge which had no prospects of success and which was fraught with evidentiary weaknesses,” Mr Soukie said.
The Department of Prosecution was contacted for comment.
Sayour was charged by the Australian Federal Police last year for allegedly handling $1.3 million in an alleged fraud and money laundering scheme led by construction boss George Alex.
He has not yet entered a plea to recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime, with the case back before the court later this month.
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