Man held captive for 22 hours

Judge Trevor Wraight said it appeared the 24-year-old victim and Al Mousawi had been selling drugs and that the victim was “holding on to” Al Mousawi’s cash for safe-keeping.

Al Mousawi, a co-accused man and another man went to the victim’s house to collect cash at 11.17pm on April 5, 2023, but it was short of the amount of money that should have been there.

After looking again for the money, the victim was told to meet the three men at a Shepparton service station.

When he got into their vehicle, Al Mousawi slapped the man’s face and elbowed him in the ribs, telling him it was “gonna be a long night”.

Throughout the night the victim contacted his partner on Snapchat and would ask for $10,000 each time.

At 3am on April 6, 2023, the man returned home briefly to ask his partner if she had taken the money, while at 3.40am the victim texted another friend saying “Hey I have misplaced some of my mate’s money I need $9000 can you send it to me?”

At 5.26am, the victim was driven to a car park in Raftery Rd, Kialla where Al Mousawi tried to choke him, before dragging him out of the vehicle and punching him in the face three times.

Later he punched and elbowed the victim in the head, neck and ribs.

At 6.39am the victim again spoke to the friend about needing money, and at 7.45am organised for his partner to meet them all in a Shepparton car park where Al Mousawi told her to find the money and that “a mate needed to be paid today”.

After she left, Al Mousawi again assaulted the man — punching him in the back and ribs, in what the victim described as the worst assault of the entire incident.

Later that morning, the victim was taken to a motel room in Kialla where Al Mousawi continued to assault him and threatened to pour boiling water on him.

Al Mousawi also heated a butter knife and held it to the victim’s neck and told him to call his partner or “I will slash you”.

Al Mousawi also made threats about the victim’s partner to him, saying he would slice her up.

The court was told the victim did not try to escape as he thought it would make things worse, as Al Mousawi knew where he lived.

At 5.15pm, the other two men left, while Special Operations Group police forced entry to the motel room at 8pm and arrested Al Mousawi.

Judge Wraight said the offending was serious.

“While it did not involve restraints, you had power for intimidation and threats,” he said.

He said the assaults would have added to the victim’s fear.

“You intimidated, bullied and assaulted the victim over a long period of time.”

The judge detailed that Al Mousawi was of Iraqi heritage, with his parents having fled to Iran, where he was born.

The family also spent time in New Zealand before moving to Australia in 2010 when Al Mousawi was 12 years old.

Al Mousawi started using cannabis daily when he was 16 and has reported smoking up to five joints a day at one stage, while at 21, he was using and dealing cocaine.

However, Judge Wraight noted the defence had said he had now stopped using drugs and had not re-offended since these offences.

He also noted that Al Mousawi had been assaulted while in prison on remand for these matters and had been left with a brain injury, leaving him with a fear of incarceration.

Al Mousawi is a New Zealand citizen, and while he had applied for Australian citizenship, he lived with the threat of deportation.

Al Mousawi was sentenced to 309 days in custody – with the time all having already been served in pre-sentence detention.

He was also placed on a two-year community corrections order, with 100 hours of community work.

The judge also ruled that hours spent in treatment and rehabilitation for drug use and mental health, as well as programs to reduce the risk of re-offending, could all count towards the community hours.