Vic: Kidnap gang get stiffer sentences

AAP General News (Australia)
12-17-2003
Vic: Kidnap gang get stiffer sentences

Eds Note: Attention to language in pars 20 and 23.



By Stuart Walsh

MELBOURNE, Dec 17 AAP - The leader of a gang of kidnappers who threatened to slice
a four-year-old girl into pieces unless a $110,000 ransom was paid had his jail sentence
increased today by a Victorian court.

Abelardo Ramos, 22, of Coburg, will spend at least nine years behind bars.

The ringleader in the plot, Ramos had originally been sentenced to serve a minimum
term of seven years for snatching Samara Hnaien at knifepoint from her Highett home in
July last year.

Today the Victorian Court of Appeal also increased Ramos' maximum term from nine and
a half years to 12 years.

Ramos' two cohorts must also serve stiffer sentences, the court decided.

The three men abducted Samara Hnaien and held her for 15 hours before releasing her
at a Fitzroy service station.

One of the three Appeal Court judges, Justice David Harper, said there was no record
of any similar crime being committed in Victoria.

He added: "It is well that this is so.

"No civilised society can tolerate the criminality in which the (three men) engaged.

"In my opinion, the clear duty of the court is to make it plain that crimes of this
nature are abhorrent.

"They as much as almost any crime, and more than most, offend against values which
civilised communities regard as sacrosanct."

Belal Herasan, 20, of Gladstone Park, who was sentenced to seven years with a minimum
of four, had his sentence increased to 10 years with a minimum of seven.

Reginald Delos Santos, 27, of Sunbury, will serve four and a half years with a minimum
of two years instead of three and a half years with a minimum of one and a half.

The Director of Public Prosecutions had appealed on the basis that the sentences were
too lenient.

The court heard Ramos and Herasan had planned the kidnapping to get revenge on Ali
Hnaien, Samara's father, with whom the two men worked at a Melbourne hotel.

It was claimed Mr Hnaien had sacked Ramos and demoted Herasan.

Delos Santos was promised $15,000 to be part of the plot.

It was about 7.15am on July 14 last year that Ramos and Herasan, clad in balaclavas
and armed with knives, forced their way into the Hnaien house when Samara answered the
door.

The two gagged Samara's mother, Deborah Bick, shackled her to a cot with handcuffs,
then left with Samara.

Half an hour later Ramos called Mr Hnaien's mobile phone and told him: "I will kill
your daughter and I can fucking guarantee it because you owe me big time, mate."

The three took Samara to a friend's home in Flemington and Delos Santos left soon afterward.

The friend was told Samara was Herasan's niece.

At 3.30pm Ramos again called Mr Hnaien demanding $110,000 for Samara's return.

He told Mr Hnaien: "I will slice her into pieces if you don't fucking follow my demands".

The three men decided to drop Samara off when they saw a report about the kidnapping
on the evening news.

AAP sew/ce/cbs/br

KEYWORD: RAMOS NIGHTLEAD

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