Jury Trials Return to NSW After a 3-Month Freeze
By Poppy Morandin & Jimmy Singh. With COVID-19 related restrictions easing and business seemingly returning to normal for most of New South Wales, the District Court has begun criminal trials before juries again. The return will be done under strict measures including temperature checks and screening questions for jurors, in order to prevent individuals ...continue reading
Law on Drug Smuggling Charges in NSW
While Australia no longer have the death sentence as a penalty, China still has it under its criminal justice system. Australia completely abolished the death sentence by 1985, in fact the federal government legislated against capital punishment. The last ever recorded execution by way of a death penalty in Australia was in 1967, Victoria ...continue reading
How Does COVID-19 Affect Bail Applications in NSW?
By Fouad Awada and Jimmy Singh. On 30 March 2020, the Supreme Court of New South Wales handed down a decision granting conditional bail to Mr Abdul Rakielbakhour who was accused and charged with serious domestic violence charges. Mr Rakielbakhour was arrested and charged with common assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, alleged ...continue reading
Australia’s Growing Illicit Drug Consumption
Australia has spent over $11b on prohibited drugs just last year. In fact, reports say that while the Sydney community is consuming less alcohol, consumption of prohibited drugs have increased, namely cocaine methylamphetamine and nicotine. From the $11.3b spent on drugs by our nation last year, just over $8b of it was on methylamphetamine. ...continue reading
What are the Rules Around NSW Police Strip Searching a Person?
241,000 is the number that has been given to NSW Police Officers, representing the quota for conducting personal searches, including strip searches on people for the 2019 financial year. In fact, in 2019, NSW Police failed to meet its quota by just under 2000 searches. NSW Greens managed to obtained the shocking revelation through the ...continue reading
What is a Criminal Lawyers’ Role?
Criminal lawyers represent people from all walks of life. Unfortunately, movies and TV shows have portrayed criminal lawyers in a bad light, prompting members of the public asking the question criminal lawyers get asked too often, “but how can you defend a criminal?”, or “how can you defend a guilty person?”. Too often we ...continue reading
Penalties & Defences for Importing Commercial Quantity of MDMA into Australia
It is reported that two men have allegedly tried to import 645kg of MDMA drugs from Cyprus to Sydney by hiding it in aluminium BBQ’s. Police allege that the drugs were being imported to Sydney in 200 aluminium barbeques in July last year. Following an investigation lasting 6-months, authorities have arrested two men, a ...continue reading
Penalties for Importing Commercial Quantity of Methamphetamine or ‘Ice’
It is reported that two men and a woman aged in their late 30’s have allegedly been involved in the drug importation of 1.6 tonnes of methamphetamine valued at over $1 billion. From the three charged, a male and a female were customs agents, and trusted insiders who the police believe used their positions ...continue reading
Penalties and Defences for Importing Cocaine into Australia
Authorities have managed to uncover drugs concealed within aluminium alloy ingots in September, located at the Sydney Container Examination Facility. Hidden inside the aluminium ingots were over $104 million worth of cocaine. The drugs were concealed in a sophisticated way within more than 1,800 modified aluminium alloy ingots, which were imported from Mexico. Police ...continue reading
The Penalties for Importing Drugs into Australia
It is reported that nearly 500kg of methylamphetamine worth $300m has been imported in 768 bottles of Sriracha chilli sauce. The ice was under the Australian Border Force (ABF) radar when it arrived in Australia from the US on 15 October. Upon arrival into Australia, the consignment was reported to have been allegedly accessed ...continue reading