SMART JUDICIARY PRACTICES IN THE LAND DOWN UNDER

Judge praised for lengthy jail term for drink spiking rapists

AU News--Two Sydney men have been jailed for 15 years for spiking 12 people's drinks, and robbing and raping some of them. Most of the victims were tourists from Asia and Europe in Australia on holidays.


Chebli Djait and Adel Samadi robbed 12 tourists and raping four of them in one week in 2004. They spiked their victims' drinks with the prescription epilepsy drug Clonazepam (This is widely and readily available for use as an anti-anxiety medication as well in the U.S., beware!)


They even took photos with their victims, often 'helping' those they'd drugged home. The pair targeted Japanese, Korean - even a Swiss tourist - in bars around Sydney's CBD, carrying the drugs in TicTac containers.


In sentencing them to a maximum 15 years jail today, Judge Robyn Tupman said Sydneysiders expected to feel safe to "walk into a nightclub without the risk of predators like these two slipping something into their drinks - so that they can take advantage of them and steal from them - or worse".


Police Minister Carl Scully praised the judge's decision to sentence the men the lengthy terms. "Today is a day of celebration - finally we've got a judicial officer whacking these guys over the head with a very long-term jail sentence - and they're going to have to lick their wounds not for days - years," Mr Scully said.


Samadi and Djait arrived in Australia as refugees in the mid 1990's from Algeria. The Judge said she took that into account when sentencing. Today, they sat quietly and listened while their interpreters explained to them what was going on in Arabic. With time already served, both men will be eligible for parole in 2016.