Australia: Woman sues police after six months in prison

Arrested on an allegation. No attempt to check the facts

A south-west Sydney woman is suing the NSW police for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment after she was charged with intent to murder and jailed for six months pending a trial, only for the matter to be dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Palestinian-Australian Hayam Abed, 51, says she was the victim of false allegations, concocted by her ex-husband Khalil Younis and his new wife, Wafaa, which police had accepted without properly examining the evidence.

The NSW District Court heard this week that on the evening of December 8, 2006, after a series of ongoing and, at times, violent disputes between Ms Abed and the Younises, Mrs Younis rang the police.

She said Ms Abed had leapt over the six-foot fence separating their properties in Austral with a large knife.

Ms Abed then allegedly smashed and crawled through the bathroom window, before threatening to kill Mrs Younis.

Police arrived soon after and arrested Ms Abed, charging her with breaking and entering with intent to murder.

"I said to the police, 'Why?' " Ms Abed told the court.

"I said I want to change my clothes . . . I'm going to the police station in my clothes for the bed, but they refused.

"I screamed to the police, 'I need my headscarf!' They say 'no'."

She was refused bail and sent to Mulawa women's prison where she remained for the next six months until prosecutors advised all charges should be dropped because the evidence would not support a conviction.

In her statement of claim, filed by her solicitor Anthony Porthouse, Ms Abed said she was incapable of leaping over the fence at the time because she was suffering from two broken ribs, allegedly inflicted by the Younises the day before.

Police were allegedly made aware of this fact but failed to investigate it further until April the following year, when they obtained the X-rays showing the broken bones.

"You have got this sharp, six-foot Colorbond fence that this woman supposedly leapt over like Superman, not once but twice," Ms Abed's barrister David Higgs, SC, said.

The court also heard the broken glass from the bathroom window, which Ms Abed supposedly climbed through, was lying outside the house, suggesting it had been broken from the inside.

The knife Ms Abed supposedly carried had no fingerprints or DNA on it.

Phone records showed that at the time Ms Abed was, on Mrs Younis' account, breaking into her ex-husband's home, she was on the phone.

"If there is a lead that can bear on the possible innocence of the accused, it should be followed up," Mr Higgs said. "The police didn't follow it up."

Ms Abed said her time in prison contributed to the depressive disorder she now has, and is suing the police and the Younises for punitive and aggravated damages.

But the court also heard this week that Ms Abed and the Younises had been engaged in disputes, at times violent, since they divorce and Mr Younis returned from Palestine with a new wife. Ms Abed had been arrested by police and became the subject of an apprehended violence order.

The Younises maintain their allegations against Ms Abed are true.

The police will argue they acted properly in arresting and charging Ms Abed given the seriousness of the criminal allegations against her, and the subsequent investigation was run normally and appropriately.

Original report here




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