Former Canberra Rebels bikie boss Ali Bilal refused bail 'with some hesitation'

Former Canberra Rebels president Ali Hassan Bilal, 50, was sentenced in the ACT Magistrates Court last week to 13 months in jail over a series of threatening and menacing phone rants.

Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker ordered Bilal, who made the offending calls while police had his phone tapped last year, to spend four months behind bars before serving the remainder of his sentence on a recognisance.

Bilal, wearing a prison-issued shirt, sat in the ACT Supreme Court dock on Thursday as his barrister, John Purnell SC, applied for him to be granted bail.

Mr Purnell told Justice Geoffrey Kennett that Bilal was challenging his sentence on several grounds, including manifest excess and a complaint that Ms Walker had taken into account irrelevant matters.

He added that the Chief Magistrate had erred by "confabulating" an offence of using a carriage service to menace with a more serious one of threatening serious harm.

Mr Purnell also took issue with Ms Walker citing some domestic violence cases as comparable, saying they were not.

"Without wishing to appear flippant, it's like saying, 'See that poor elephant over here and that tiger over there, it's magnificent'," he told Justice Kennett.

"Yet I'm talking about lambs."

Another complaint the veteran barrister made related to Ms Walker's reliance on Bilal's position as a bikie boss at the time of his crimes, saying neither this nor the association of some victims with the Rebels was relevant.

"[The victims] could've been a member of the St Matthew Passion choir, or they could've been anything," Mr Purnell said.

The court heard that unless Bilal was bailed, he would serve about a quarter of the time in custody imposed by Ms Walker before his appeal was heard.

"One day, one hour, is too much for someone who shouldn't be there if they have a proper basis for bail," Mr Purnell said, arguing Bilal had reasonable prospects of succeeding in his appeal.

He also said there had been no complaint about Bilal's compliance with bail during the period of about seven months between his arrest and sentencing.

Prosecutor Katie McCann argued against bail, saying Bilal's appeal was "not a particularly strong one".

She said there was not a risk that Bilal would serve "an unacceptable portion" of his jail term before the appeal was heard, adding that the special or exceptional circumstances required for bail in a case like this did not exist.

Justice Kennett ultimately found Bilal's appeal did have reasonable prospects of success, citing two particular points he described as "genuinely arguable".

These were the complaint that Ms Walker had confused two different offences, and the Chief Magistrate's reliance on the fact Bilal and some of his victims were involved with the Rebels at the time in question.

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Ms Walker found Bilal's status as a leader of a gang reputed to be involved in criminal activity, including standover tactics, would have enhanced the fear felt by the victims who were linked with the outlaw motorcycle group.

Justice Kennett said the material before Ms Walker did not seem to provide a basis for this finding, which must have been "drawn from her own knowledge".

Despite his assessment of the appeal's prospects of success, the judge did not think Bilal having to serve about one-quarter of his full-time jail term was "unacceptable".

He said while it was "not ideal", it was also not special or exceptional.

Justice Kennett accordingly refused bail "with some hesitation".

Bilal's appeal hearing has been scheduled for September 1.

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