{"id":80301,"date":"2026-08-25T23:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T23:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/80301\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T23:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T23:12:17","slug":"miscarriage-of-justice-warning-holds-no-sway-in-farhat-parole-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/80301\/","title":{"rendered":"Miscarriage of justice warning holds no sway in Farhat parole ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

A NSW Supreme Court judge wrote to the state\u2019s parole authority to make it aware of \u201cserious \u00aderrors\u201d and possible miscarriage of justice in the case against \u2018f..k Israel\u2019 vandal Mohommed Farhat<\/a>, who is at the centre of a legal tug of war over whether he is antisemitic and poses a terror threat.<\/p>\n

However, judge Desmond Fagan\u2019s personal intervention in Farhat\u2019s parole case<\/a> had no effect, with the authority confirming to The Australian that his findings were not taken into account in its decision to uphold a previous \u00adruling denying Farhat parole.<\/p>\n

Justice Fagan said he\u2019d wanted the authority to be aware of his findings and to take them into \u00adaccount, telling a hearing on Aug\u00adust 19 that the sentencing magistrate had not received key evidence corroborating Farhat\u2019s version of events, and had been misled. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would it not be appropriate for me to inquire of the state whether it will now join in trying to rectify what appears to be a serious miscarriage of justice in that the State Parole Authority was induced to revoke his parole on an erroneous basis?\u201d Justice Fagan said in response to concerns raised by counsel for the state on whether he was seeking to compel another statutory regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t purport to compel,\u201d he said. \u201cI simply ask whether the state through various of its agencies will now do something to correct the evident injustice of him still being in full-time custody.\u201d <\/p>\n

In his lengthy judgment, Justice Fagan said he had considered thousands of pages of evidence tendered by the state, extensive psychological reports and four days of hearings before deciding there had been errors in the case and that the sentencing magistrate was wrong to finding that the slurs \u201cf..k Israel\u201d and \u201cPKK coming\u201d were antisemitic.<\/p>\n

He said Farhat was motivated by money, not antisemitism or religious ideology, and did not pose a serious terror threat \u2013 findings at odds with the parole board, which found Farhat had not resiled from his \u201cextremist views\u201d and was a \u00adserious identifiable risk to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the authority\u2019s view, the offending was reflective of a deep-seated adherence on the part of the offender to an extremist ideology of an antisemitic character,\u2019\u2019 the parole board said in its decision, which will see Farhat serve his full 20-month sentence, which expires in October.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the parole authority said Farhat\u2019s parole determination was made on material presented at a hearing on March 6 this year, more than four months before Justice Fagan\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

However, its decision was handed down last Monday, weeks after the Supreme Court judge\u2019s findings on serious errors in the case. \u201cThe findings by the \u00adSupreme Court were not taken into account, given the separate functions and legislative requirements of each jurisdiction,\u2019\u2019 the authority spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Justice Fagan said he was concerned that errors made early in the case had carried through to material before the parole board. He found the sentencing magistrate had not been provided Farhat\u2019s full bank statements, which corroborated his account that he was paid to carry out the offences, or told that counter-terrorism police had accepted that Farhat had been recruited and was not ideologically motivated.<\/p>\n

Justice Fagan said he had refrained from criticising police.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have refrained from suggesting any impropriety but the fact is that the police at the time of his sentence before the magistrate had in their possession information that counter-terrorism officers had assessed [Farhat\u2019s] explanation as credible and that was not told to the magistrate for whatever reason,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson has referred the matter to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, which investigates police misconduct, telling a budget estimates hearing that Farhat\u2019s sentence was based on incorrect information. <\/p>\n

Chief Commissioner Peter Johnson, who was at the hearing, said the commission would consider the concerns raised.<\/p>\n

It comes as Attorney-General Michael Daley seeks legal advice over a possible appeal against Justice Fagan\u2019s refusal to place Farhat under special monitoring when he is released from prison, and Farhat\u2019s legal team considers options for possible miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n

Justice Fagan\u2019s decision has attracted widespread attention, not just for its findings on Farhat but from detailed arguments distinguishing anti-Israel speech from antisemitism and his criticism of a widely adopted definition of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

He was critical of the \u201cinept drafting\u2019\u2019 of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, saying it was verbose and imprecise and was being used to stifle debate by conflating political criticism of Israel with Jewish hatred.<\/p>\n

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the decision smacked of judicial activism.<\/p>\n

Read related topics:Israel<\/a>\"Christine<\/a>Christine Middap<\/a>Associate editor, chief writer<\/p>\n

Christine Middap is associate editor and chief writer at The Australian. She was previously editor of The Weekend Australian Magazine for 11 years. Christine worked as a journalist and editor in Tasmania, Queensland and NSW, and at The Times in London. She is a former foreign correspondent and London bureau chief for News Corp’s Australian newspapers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A NSW Supreme Court judge wrote to the state\u2019s parole authority to make it aware of \u201cserious 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