How antisemitic vandal’s password brought him undone
An antisemitic vandal’s choice of phone password has raised eyebrows as his attempt to appeal his sentence over a night of destruction fell flat.
In a supplied CCTV screenshot, Mohommed Farhat and Thomas Stojanovski spray paint a car in Sydney, Wednesday, November 20, 2024. One of two men responsible for an anti-Semitic vandalism spree has been sentenced to jail.
The similarity between an anti-Semitic vandal’s phone password and the hateful slurs he spray-painted on cars and buildings casts doubt on whether he has reformed, a court has been told.
Mohommed Farhat, 21, spearheaded a 41-minute campaign of destruction through Woollahra, a heartland for Australia’s Jewish community, in the dead of the night on November 20, 2024.
Farhat and his accomplice Thomas Stojanovski, also 21, covered 10 cars in graffiti, burned two and vandalised four buildings in the eastern Sydney suburb.
“F*** Israel” and “PKK coming” – a reference to the terror-designated Kurdistan Workers’ Party – were among the slurs emblazoned across the cars and buildings.
Farhat was jailed in November for a maximum of one year and eight months after pleading guilty to 15 charges, including multiple counts of property damage.
During his appeal against the severity of his sentence on Friday, the NSW District Court was told the 21-year-old’s Apple password is “f***israel313”.
The crown prosecutor questioned whether it could be a coincidence that the passcode contained the same words spray-painted on property during the crime spree that caused more than $100,000 in damage.
“This casts serious doubt on the account that he’s reformed and strongly suggests he chose the words,” Judge Mark Williams summarised the crown position.
The numerals in the password are a nod to Farhat’s tattoo “313”, in which the one is a bullet.
He also bears a tattoo of a Hezbollah symbol, which the court has been told he got because he liked the design and didn’t know what it meant.
The 21-year-old claimed he didn’t know he was vilifying Jewish people and said he had been motivated by drugs and money to participate in the vandalism spree instead of prejudice.
He has since expressed a desire to remove the tattoos, changed his behaviour and demonstrated his remorse, his barrister Peter Lange SC said.
Farhat has low intellectual functioning and is easily influenced, he argued, so a jail term in the community would reduce his risk of reoffending by providing supervision and treatment.
“In custody, he can be influenced,” he said.
“At liberty, any such associations can be monitored.”
But the crown prosecutor contended Farhat poses a serious risk to the community if released, pointing to multiple jail calls in which Farhat threatened to murder his ex-girlfriend.
The 21-year-old knowingly engaged in hate crimes and that requires a strong message to be sent to others who might consider the same action, he told the court.
Judge Williams agreed, dismissing the appeal and noting the original sentence was “wholly justified”.
By: Adelaide Lang/AAP
