A Sudanese refugee mixed martial arts champion was spared jail for the unprovoked bashing of a stranger in western Sydney after his lawyer argued he was racially bullied growing up.
Samir “Tank” Ali, 23, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in Campbelltown Local Court last week over the attack on Saif Sahar outside a Mount Pritchard aquatics shop on January 12, 2024.
Ali, who was a gold medallist at the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation Oceania championships and a silver medallist in the international competition in 2022, was arrested in December and remanded in custody for six weeks before being released on bail, The Daily Telegraph reported.
According to court documents, Ali and three co-accused pulled up in a black Toyota Corolla to where Mr Sahar and a group of friends were sitting outside Aqua DIY and Ali asked: “Do you remember me?”
He suddenly slapped Mr Sahar, who was then put in a headlock by another man, and Alu repeatedly kneed and punched him in the head. Mr Sahar fell to the ground where he was kicked and stomped on, but not by Ali.
Ali then took a mobile phone from one of Mr Sahar’s friends and his group fled the scene.
Mr Sahar told police he had nodded to Ali but did not actually recognise him.
Prosecutor Jayden Murdoch said the attack involved significant violence and Ali should be jailed, but Ali’s barrister Ben Barrack argued his client had been the victim of racism during his childhood in western Sydney, and that if he was sentenced to more imprisonment he would be “vulnerable to negative peer influence”.
Magistrate Peter Thompson found Ali had shown significant insight into his offending in a letter of apology, and gave him a 14-month community-based intensive correction order, with 100 hours of unpaid community service work.
Header image: Samir Ali (Instagram).
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