Gangster inmate Bassam Hamzy appeals court ruling to speak Arabic in prison
Notorious inmate and gangster Bassam Hamzy is appealing Supermax prison’s English-only rule for high risk inmates, claiming the ban is ‘racist’.
Notorious inmate and gangster Bassam Hamzy is appealing Supermax prison’s English-only rule for high risk inmates in a bid to speak Arabic and chat unmonitored with his lawyers.
His head shaved, and wearing a prison green T-shirt, knee-length baggy shorts and runners, Hamzy appeared by audio visual link from Unit 9 of Goulburn’s Supermax prison on Monday.
The former Brothers 4 Life gang leader was launching one of several legal challenges he is mounting from behind bars, including a motion against the NSW Police Commissioner.
Locked up in 2001 for a notorious nightclub murder and since convicted of other crimes, Hamzy is serving a 40-year prison sentence.
He is classified as one of Goulburn Supermax jail’s “Extreme High Risk” inmates, with restricted access and associations.
There are concerns Hamzy could be continuing from behind bars to operate the B4L gang, which has been involved in a violent underworld war on the streets with the rival Alameddine family.
Hamzy’s brother and cousin, Mejid Hamzy and Bilal Hamze, were shot dead in October last year and June this year.
Relatives Salim Hamze, 18, and his father Toufik were brazenly gunned down in broad daylight outside their Sydney home last week.
In April last year, the Supreme Court refused to grant Hamzy the right to speak Arabic and chat in telephone calls chat unmonitored with lawyers who had not undergone criminal background checks.
The convicted killer’s lawyers have previously argued that, under the Racial Discrimination Act, Hamzy should be able to communicate with visitors and others in Arabic rather than English.
Registrar Jerry Riznyczok listened as Hamzy, who considers himself a kind of prison lawyer,
said he would request a laptop computer in his Supermax cell overnight to consider submissions.
Inmates in the NSW correctional system are forbidden internet access, but the hearing was told USB files of lengthy document bundles had been filed by the Crown Solicitor for Corrective Services NSW.
Mobile phones are also banned in the state’s prisons and Hamzy has previously been caught making calls with a contraband mobile to associates while incarcerated in Lithgow prison.
Last year, Hamzy asked the NSW Supreme Court to overturn the requirement for his legal representatives to be approved by the Corrective Services Commissioner, or undergo yearly criminal background checks.
Hamzy also wanted AVL access to speak with his lawyers and for his phone calls to go unmonitored to respect his privacy.
“The right to speak in a person’s language is one exercised by all Australian citizens who wish to do so,” Michael Finnane QC, a former District Court judge for Hamzy told the court last year.
“He cannot communicate in the language of his birth with members of his family, nor can they with him,” he said.
Justice Geoffrey Bellew rejected last year’s application and Justice Fabian Gleeson is due to hear a further application on Tuesday.
Justice Bellew concluded Hamzy did not have the right to express himself in Arabic in all circumstances, including as a prisoner.
His then solicitor, Zali Burrows, said of Hamzy’s position that “inmates in Guantanamo Bay have more rights than inmates in a NSW jail”.
Corrective Services has said it was only possible to monitor telephone calls, not AVL meetings and Hamzy posed too great a risk for such communications.
“The provision of AVL access to Mr Hamzy, including either the video link facility or the unmonitored telephone in the AVL room holding cell, would pose a significant security risk … in that it would increase the likelihood that he would conduct illegal activities from within the (prison),” a CSNSW security manager Geoffrey Poulsen wrote.
Hamzy has committed serious offences while behind bars including allegedly running a drug ring.
The gang member has objected to prison officers “dropping in” to his calls, saying they violated his constitutional right to confidential conversations with his lawyers.
“I state carigorically (sic) that I do not give any permission, authority or consent to any person or officer to listen to my legally privilaged (sic) calls which are in the pursual of my legal affairs,” he wrote to authorities in 2016.
The prison commissioner’s legal team argued officers had the right to briefly check on phone calls to ensure the security and safety of the prison.
candace.sutton@news.com.au