Sydney's Hyde Park Muslim Insurgency Protestor Hamza Cheikho

Hamza Cheikho: Jury told to accept his role in the Hyde Park Muslim protest

Amy Dale Chief Court Reporter
The Daily Telegraph
September 30 2015.

A SUPREME Court jury was yesterday urged to accept that a man who participated in the Hyde Park Muslim protest should take responsibility for his part in working up the crowd.

Hamza Cheikho is suing Nationwide News, the publisher of The Daily Telegraph, for defamation over four articles published in the fortnight following the protest in September 2012.

The publisher is defending the proceedings on grounds ­including truth and honest opinion.

Tom Blackburn SC, counsel for Nationwide News, yesterday finished his closing ­address to the jury of two men and two women before submissions began from Mr Cheikho’s barrister, Tom Molomby SC.

Mr Cheikho, 22, was never interviewed by police nor charged in relation to the ­protests, which were sparked by Muslim outrage at a YouTube video that was deemed to be offensive to Islam.

The former junior rugby league coach claims the articles falsely depicted him, among other imputations, as a Muslim extremist who incites other Muslims to violence.

Mr Molomby told the jury his client had been portrayed in a “viscous distortion” as “one of the ringleaders, one of the activists, one of the troublemakers who had done this”.

“(But) he’s not in the front rank, he’s not in the pushing and shoving. He is a follower and not a leader,” he said.

Mr Blackburn reminded the jury that NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione had given evidence about the investigation after the protest as police attempted to work out why the day turned violent.

Mr Scipione gave evidence last week that the event, which resulted in the arrest of several men and injuries to police, could be classified as “a riot”.

Mr Blackburn told the court yesterday “no Australian gets praise for not being violent ­because that is an obligation that we all have”.

Mr Blackburn suggested to the jury Mr Cheikho “must take responsibility” for attending the protest and for encouraging others to attend via a post he made on Facebook.

The court has heard Mr Cheikho joined in with chanting at the US consulate on the day of the protests when the crowd shouted “Obama, Obama, we love Osama”.

Mr Cheikho has denied he chanted those words.

The hearing continues.

Muslims Gone Wild Down Under : Hamza Cheikho Facebook page support of ISIS "not written by him"

Hamza Cheikho: I don’t support ISIS, says Muslim Hyde Park protester

Amy DaleChief Court Reporter
The Daily Telegraph
September 25 2015.

A MAN who participated in Sydney’s Hyde Park Muslim protests has rejected the suggestion he’s a supporter of Islamic State, or ISIS, claiming several posts on his Facebook profile — some of which appeared to be sympathetic to ISIS — had not been written by him, a court was told yesterday.

The claim by Hamza Cheikho, 22, follows evidence he gave on Tuesday and yesterday when he said his comments on a TV interview at the time of the protests in 2012 suggesting he supported beheading the maker of a YouTube video had been “taken out of context” — and also that he “wasn’t paying attention” to the reporter’s question.

Mr Cheikho is suing Nationwide News, the publisher of The Daily Telegraph, in the NSW ­Supreme Court in relation to four articles that appeared in the fortnight following the protests, during which several police officers were injured and Mr Cheikho was photographed with Khaled Sharrouf, who went on to become one of Islamic State’s most brutal terrorists in the Middle East.

The publisher is defending the case on grounds including truth and honest opinion.

The Subversive Second Phase of Islam: Lawfare And Shari’a Compliance

Muslims Gone Wild Down Under: Hamza Cheikho “taken out of context”.

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Under re-examination by his counsel Tom Molomby SC, Mr Cheikho again addressed an ABC news bulletin in which he replied “yeah” in answer to the question “So you agree the person who made the video (which sparked the riots) should be beheaded?”

Mr Cheikho said he had been “giving an explanation for Sharia law” during the interview. “(The reporter) asked me something about beheading,” he said. “I agreed to what (the reporter) was saying but I didn’t pay attention to the actual question he was asking me.”

Mr Cheikho spent much of the day yesterday being cross-examined by counsel for Nationwide News Tom Blackburn SC, largely about the contents of his Facebook page. The jury of two men and two women was shown a series of posts and updates made on Mr Cheikho’s public Facebook profile, some of which he denied posting himself.

In one post, the profile shared a photo made by a group titled ­“Debunking lies against ISIS”. “ISIS haters are getting so desperate they are photoshopping,” the post’s caption read. When questioned by Mr Blackburn, he said: “I’m not sure I wrote that.”

However, when questioned further, he then denied writing it.

He said he didn’t remove comments from Facebook friends saying “LOL” and “LMAO” in response to a photo of Muslim leader Dr Jamal Rifi leading prayers at the Martin Place siege memorial in the days following the ­December siege.

“It’s (the friend’s) opinion and I didn’t want to have an argument with him,” he said. He also said that he “doesn’t know” how to delete comments made by others.

The jury heard his page contained links to articles about the rumoured death in Syria of Sharrouf.

The hearing continues today.

Muslims Gone Wild Down Under: Hamza Cheikho “taken out of context”.

Hamza Cheikho: Protester not ashamed to be at rally where others called for a beheading

Amy Dale Chief Court Reporter
The Daily Telegraph
September 23 2015

A MAN who participated in Sydney’s Hyde Park Muslim protests in 2012 told a TV interviewer that the person who made a video deemed offensive to the prophet Mohammed, and which sparked the riots when it was posted online, should be beheaded, a court heard yesterday.

But Hamza Cheikho, 22, yesterday told the court his quote had been “taken out of context”.

Muslim Insurgents Sydney Riot latest Video and Pictures

Sydney under attack from Muslim Insurgents

Muslim Insurgents Sydney Riot latest Video and Pictures

Moments before he was shown the footage from an ABC news bulletin, Mr Cheikho had told a jury he did not agree anyone who insults Islam should be punished by decapitation.

Mr Cheikho is suing Nationwide News, publisher of The Daily Telegraph, for defamation over four articles published in the days following the violent September, 2012, protests, during which several police officers were injured.

The publisher is defending the claims on grounds including truth and honest opinion.

The Supreme Court also heard Mr Cheikho attended a conference organised by radical Islamic group Hizb Ut-Tahrir the day after the riots, but he said during his evidence that he “wasn’t sure” if Hizb Ut-Tahrir was a radical group.

“You say, do you, that you don’t agree with the view that a person who insults Islam should be decapitated?” Tom Blackburn SC, counsel for ­Nationwide News, asked him.

“Yes (I don't agree),” Mr Cheikho said.

“And this was the view you held at the time?”

“Yes.”

But the jury of two men and two women who are hearing the case were then immediately shown the news footage, in which Mr Cheikho is asked for his view on beheading those ­responsible for a YouTube film that was deemed insulting to Islam and Mohammed.

He was being interviewed following public outrage about a placard brandished at the Hyde Park protest, including by a child, which read: “Behead all those who insult the Prophet.”

“It (the placard) wasn’t for the Police Commissioner, it was for the individual who made the video,” Mr Cheikho says in the interview, broadcast by the ABC the day after the riots.

“So you agree the person who made the video should be beheaded?” the reporter asks.

Mr Cheikho replies: “Yeah.”

When questioned in court yesterday by Mr Blackburn about the inconsistency, Mr Cheikho said he had been “taken out of context” and he had been explaining off camera about “Islamic law” and didn’t pay attention to that question.

“The Islamic rule is whoever insults the prophet or curses at the prophet ... the Islamic rule is that they be decapitated,” Mr Cheikho told the jury.

Mr Cheikho earlier said he was not “embarrassed” or “ashamed” to have been at a protest where some had called for the ­beheading of the person who made the film.

“I put it to you, Mr Cheikho, that after what you said to the ABC you don’t have any right to feel respected about your views on Islam. Do you agree with that proposition?” Mr Blackburn said.

“No,” Mr Cheikho said.

The hearing resumes ­tomorrow before Justice Lucy McCallum.