R v Qaumi & Ors (No 67) [2016] NSWSC 1601

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Qaumi & Ors (No 67) [2016] NSWSC 1601 Hearing dates: 11 November 2016 Date of orders: 11 November 2016 Decision date: 11 November 2016 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Criminal Before: Hamill J Decision: 1. All previous non-publication orders are hereby revoked. 2.(a)There is to be no publication of the name of Mohammad Zarshoy. (b) There is to be no publication of the name of Mohammad Zarshoy in the listing of the matter for trial and he shall be referred to in any such listing as DD. (c) For the purpose of section 12 of the Court Suppression and Non-Publication Orders Act, orders 2(a) and (b) will remain in place until one of the following events: (i) The DPP notifies the Court that there will be no further proceedings in relation to the murder charge against Mohammad Zarshoy or (ii) The commencement of his trial for the charge of murder. (d) Orders 2(a), (b) and (c) are made on the grounds that they are necessary to prevent prejudice to the proper administration of justice. (e) For the purpose of section 11 of the Court Suppression and Non-Publication Orders Act, orders 2(a), (b), (c) and (d) will apply throughout the Commonwealth of Australia. (f) Order 2(a)-(e) does not apply to the publication of judgments on NSW Caselaw or other legal web-sites. 3. The names of the witnesses to which I will presently refer are suppressed until further order of the Court pursuant to section 7 of the Court Suppression and Non-Publication Orders Act, together with any evidence, submission, discussion, document or part thereof and information that might facilitate the identification of the witnesses' names on the following grounds: (i) The order is necessary to prevent prejudice to the proper administration of justice; (ii) The order is necessary to protect the safety of the witnesses; (iii) The order is necessary in the public interest. 4. Publication of the names of the witnesses referred to in order 3 is restricted until further order of the Court pursuant to section 7 of the Act to the respective pseudonym letters allocated to each witness in the list that will follow on the same grounds as those set out in order 3(i) to (iii) above. 5. Without limiting the generality of orders 3 and 4 above, any description or depiction of the physical appearance or other identifying feature of any or all of the witnesses is suppressed until further order of the Court pursuant to section 7 of the Act, except as might be necessary for the proper conduct of proceedings, such as the sentencing proceedings, on the grounds set out in order 3(i) and (ii) above. 6. The witnesses to which orders 3 and 4 apply are the following, along with the pseudonym letters: Witness A [redacted] Witness B [redacted] Witness C [redacted] Witness D [redacted] Witness E [redacted] Witness F [redacted] Witness G [redacted] Witness I [redacted] Witness J [redacted] Witness K [redacted] Witness L [redacted] Witness M [redacted] 7. Finally, those orders in relation to suppression of names and identity will also apply to the undercover police officer referred to in the trial as "[redacted]". The witness [redacted] should not be referred to by name, including the name [redacted]. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – revocation of non-publication orders – public interest in open justice – not necessary to continue orders – supression orders – identity of informants witnesses and undercover police officers – preducie to administraiton of justice – release of exhibits – CCTV footage of courtroom – violent incident in dock – evidence not tendered in trial – jury not made aware of incident – incident able to be observed by any person in court at the time – practice note generally allowing access to third parties to court file – disc tendered in contempt proceedings – exhibit released to media Legislation Cited: Court Suppression and Non-Publication Orders Act 2010 (NSW) Cases Cited: Nationwide News v Qaumi [2016] NSWCCA 9 R v Qaumi & Ors (No 9) [2016] NSWSC 171 R v Qaumi & Ors (No 13) [2016] NSWSC 337 R v Qaumi & Ors (No 15) [2016] NSWSC 318 R v Qaumi & Ors (No 50) [2016] NSWSC 1036 R v Qaumi & Ors (No 55) [2016] NSWSC 1068 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Nationwide News, Fairfax and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Intervenors) Regina Farhad Qaumi Mumtaz Qaumi Jamil Qaumi Mohammad Zarshoy Mohammed Kalal Representation: Counsel: M Lewis (Intervenors) K McKay & P Hogan (Crown) J Stratton SC & M Curry (F Qaumi) P Young SC (M Quami) N Carroll (J Quami) R Driels (M Zarshoy) G Clarke (M Kalal) Solicitors: In-house counsel for media organisations (Intervenors) Solicitor for the NSW DPP(Crown) Archbold Legal (F Qaumi) George Sten & Co (M Quami) Bannisters Lawyers (J Quami) Zahr Lawyers (M Zarshoy) Hallak Law (M Kalal) File Number(s): Farhad Quami - 2014/6809; 2014/315201; 2014/315252Mumtaz Quami – 2014/6813; 2014/315251; 2014/315260Jamil Quami - 2013/336086; 2014/18164; 2014315253Mohammad Zarshoy – 2014/316236Mohammed Kalal - 2013/344739; 2014/66939 Publication restriction: No publication until the conclusion of the trial.