Logan Islamic bookshop owner Omar Succarieh is appealing his conviction for sending cash to Syria

IN A BID to escape further jail time Omar Succarieh has turned to the Court of Appeal to escape a conviction for sending money to Syria.

AN Islamic bookshop owner from Logan jailed for sending $43,700 USD to his brother to aid the Syrian War has asked Queensland’s Court of Appeal to overturn a conviction on a separate charge.

If successful, Omar Succarieh, 34, would be eligible to apply for parole as early as next month.

Succarieh was found guilty of extortion and sentenced to two years and nine months in jail following a judge-only trial earlier this year.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charge, which involved him demanding a cafe manager to hand over $50,000 to cover alleged debts owed to a former business partner.

Omar Succarieh is appealing his sentence for sending money to Syria to help fight the Assad regime.

He was already serving a four-and-a-half year sentence after he pleaded guilty in 2016 to foreign incursion charges for sending $43, 700 USD to his brother Abraham Succarieh and three other men fighting the Assad regime in Syria.

In the Court of Appeal this morning, it was argued that the judge made an error in rejecting Succarieh’s evidence that he did not threaten to break victim Vasilios Pippos’s legs.

The court will hand down its decision at a later date.

Succarieh was eligible for parole in September after the foreign incursion sentence – taking into account time already served – but the date was pushed back to May next year when he was found guilty of extortion.

Originally published as Logan Islamic bookshop owner Omar Succarieh is appealing his conviction for sending cash to Syria