Oz: Man sentenced for racist attack on an Indian

Melbourne, Oct 23: Zakarie Hussein, one of the accused in the racist attack on Sukhraj Singh , an Indian student who suffered fatal injuries in the attack on Dec 1, 2008 in Australia, was sentenced to four-and-a-half year's jail with a minimum non-parole period of two years.

Terming it to be an attack just for the 'shrill thrill' of attack, Judge Pamela Jenkins said that the group had deliberately targeted victims of Indian ethnicity in the "unprovoked rampage".

"Your victims presented no threat to you or your co-offenders whatsoever. They did not provoke you, they did not fight back and indeed they made every effort to escape from the assaults," she said.

Zakarie and his friends went on an armed rampage after bouts of beer and attacked Sukhbir along with eight others yelling"are you Indian?" as they raided Impexrin Sunshine last December.

Four of Hussein's co-offenders, aged between 14 and 17 at the time of the attack, had already received 12-month sentences, while the sixth offender will be sentenced after the result of the plea by the Director of Public Prosecutions Jeremy Rapke to the Court of Appeal against the sentences.

Sukhraj was in coma for 15 days and was feared to bear the affect of the injuries for the rest of his life. In a statement submitted to the court Sukhbir said that metal plates had been inserted into his face, he had shed up to 15 kg and been left with lumps and scars on his head from the assault.

OneIndia News