A lawyer for one of the men seen restraining Younis Younis in footage posted by a court hearing the case in Australia argued his low intelligence was to blame for his actions
Shocking footage of kidnapping in Sydney played in court
Unsettling footage has shown the moment a man was kidnapped and assaulted by four men – one of whom was his own brother-in-law.
A video exhibited in an Australian court shows the moment Younis Younis, 25, was hauled into a car by his brother-in-law Kodar Faytrouni, Safwan Hussein, Ali Hamad and Abud Elkerdi. The four had travelled from Melbourne to Guildford, Australia, in January 2023 to capture Younis because Faytrouni believed he married his sister solely to secure an Australian visa.
The video, recorded by Hamad and played to Parramatta District Court in New South Wales as two members of the group appeared for sentencing, captures the 25-year-old being roughly manhandled. In the first part of the clip, his attackers set upon him at his mother’s home, after which Hussein is seen placing Mr Younis in a headlock while in the passenger seat of a car.
His brother-in-law, seen sitting next to him, occasionally grips and at one point appears to hit the man as they drive down a highway en route to a property on Constance Street, in Guildford. The Parramatta Advertiser reported that Police were able to track down the car and conclude the incident, and all four men have pleaded guilty to charges of taking or detaining a person in the company.
Sensationally, Faytrouni’s lawyer blamed his client’s low intellect for the “bizarre” kidnapping, while Crown prosecutor Adam Muddle attributed his offence to responsibility felt towards his sister and a belief that her union with Mr Younis was not genuine. He said: “The Crown submits that this is quite a degree of insight and a degree of knowledge in terms of the motivations in the reasons behind this offending.”
A judge ruled that the move “shows a complete failure to allow this woman to select who she wants to have as her partner”. Judge Stephen Hanley told the court the kidnapping was planned and targeted. He said: “They seem to be able to find him, break into his house, extract him from his house, assault him in the car, force him to make a divorce according to Islamic law while his partner listens on the phone with a distressed condition … and you say this is below mid-range (of objective seriousness)?
“This man and his comrades seem to have a strange attitude towards women.” The trial continues, with Faytrouni and Elkerdi’s cases having been adjourned until Thursday, December 20. The delay follows Elkerdi’s admission to Westmead Hospital, with the man having collapsed during lunch adjournment. The remaining two, Hamad and Hussein, are due to appear again on December 13.
