Faruk Orman to sue Victoria after 12 years in jail
Just days ago, his gangland war conviction was the first to be overturned as a result of the Lawyer X scandal. And now, Faruk Orman wants justice and is set to sue the state after he was wrongly imprisoned for 12 years.
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Faruk Orman will sue the state of Victoria after the former “Lawyer X” client had his murder conviction quashed and he walked free from prison after 12 years.
“I didn’t get away from a crime, I never committed a crime,” Mr Orman said on ABC Radio on Monday, after his first weekend as a free man.
“If the state could give me all the world’s gold, it would never replace what I’ve been through.”
Mr Orman was freed on Friday and is the first person linked to double-agent Nicola Gobbo to have his criminal conviction overturned and some of the country’s highest profile crooks could follow.
He was acquitted of being the getaway driver in the 2002 killing of Victor Peirce by hitman Andrew “Benji” Veniamin, based on a prosecution case that relied on the word of another of Ms Gobbo’s clients.
She was blamed for the “substantial miscarriage of justice” which had him behind bars for an underworld murder he always denied.
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“I was always known as a gangland killer — like we are getting away with a crime. If people think we’re getting away from a crime, they should have given us a fair trial,” he said.
“The reality is we weren’t getting away with a crime. There are people in jail that are innocent — we’ve got nothing, we are at the mercy of the Attorney-General (Jill Hennessy) … and thankfully she was brave enough to make the decision that she did.”
He said there were a number of things that went wrong and led to his time in jail, including funding for defence funding for cases.
Mr Orman said most of the people affected had served their full-term sentences but should still be given the chance for their cases to be re-heard.
“If they think they have done nothing wrong, at the very least give them a retrial. Give them the fairness they should have had even if they get found guilty, let them get found guilty fairly,” he added.
Despite the hype in 2005 to 2009, Mr Orman said most of the thugs were in jail or being rounded up.
“After I got charged, I don’t believe anybody else has been killed in connection to the gangland war, or apart from corrupting the justice system — I can’t see how it was getting anybody off the street as everybody was already in jail and getting loaded up to being in jail,” he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Sunday that the matter of compensation would be a matter for the courts, and if justice had not been served it should be tested.
“I’d rather be criticised for allowing a matter like that to go forward and be heard afresh because there is new and relevant information than to say we won’t be having that,” he said.
“If a conviction is in anyway unsafe, then you need to go and test that.”
A royal commission is investigating police use of Ms Gobbo as an informer.
Hearings are due to resume on Tuesday.
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