Faisal Al-Mdwali avoids further time behind bars over assault, theft from housemate

Faisal Al-Mdwali, 23, pleaded guilty to charges of threatening to kill, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and joint commission theft in June.

ACT Supreme Court sentencing remarks, published on Wednesday, show he was sentenced earlier this month to a backdated four-month jail term.

Justice David Mossop suspended all but one week, which Al-Mdwali had already served on remand, imposed a 12-month good behaviour order and fined the offender $1000.

His remarks reveal that in May 2021, Al-Mdwali called the victim, whom the offender lived with at the time, saying their house had been "run through".

When the victim returned home, he found Al-Mdwali with Ibrahim Kaddour, who also lived at the house, and an unidentified man.

The group began yelling at the victim, saying "our house has been broken into because of you" as Kaddour showed a note from the alleged burglars which was on the same type of paper Kaddour kept in his work vehicle.

The victim suspected the group was trying to rob him.

Kaddour then hit the victim's jaw and Al-Mdwali did the same thing, striking the opposite side of the victim's jaw.

Kaddour then pressed a seven-inch blade "tanto Japanese-style knife" to the victim's throat, in line with his jugular vein, telling the victim they were going to kill him if he tried anything stupid.

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The unidentified male also had a machete in his possession and told the victim "if you try anything I will kill you".

The victim was then made to "go up and see what you have lost".

When he went upstairs, he saw his room had been ransacked and items were missing while the other rooms were clean.

Kaddour told the victim they were going to take him to his mother's house "and I'm going to grab everything you have".

The group drove the victim to his mother's home. Upon arrival, Kaddour went with the victim while the others waited in the vehicle.

The pair were let into the house as the victim's mother had known Kaddour for years and initially thought they were visiting.

The mother noticed her son's face was red and swollen. She knew he had been assaulted but did not say anything out of fear of worsening the situation.

Kaddour stole $8000 worth of items and $1000 in cash before leaving.

The victim had swelling and bruising on his face the next day, and could not eat food for a few days due to his injuries.

Al-Mdwali was later arrested on October 2021.

Justice Mossop noted the offender's role in this case was "much less than that of his co-offenders", particularly Kaddour, and while the precise motivation of the offending is not clear, "it appears to have occurred in the context of Kaddour's drug-fuelled leadership".

The level of offending was considered low- to mid-range, and Justice Mossop noted Al-Mdwali's lack of criminal history and a post-traumatic stress diagnosis caused by the murder of his sister in 2015.

Al-Mdwali had, after the death of his sister, begun consuming drugs, including cannabis and cocaine, which he has since stopped using after his arrest.

Justice Mossop believed "the experience of incarceration following [Al-Mdwali's] arrest appears to have been enough of a shock to snap him out of his drug-using lifestyle".

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