A Sydney man convicted of vandalising cars and setting a vehicle alight has been denied parole for a second time, despite a Supreme Court judge criticising the case against him. Mohommed Farhat, 22, was sentenced after pleading guilty to 15 offences linked to vandalism in Woollahra in November 2024.
Farhat was initially expected to be released on parole in December after serving 10 months in prison. However, his release was stopped following an intervention by the commissioner for corrective services, who argued that his actions showed support for extremist behaviour.
Supreme Court Justice Desmond Fagan later criticised the case, finding that Farhat posed an insignificant risk of committing a serious terrorism offence. The judge said authorities had wrongly treated his actions as antisemitic rather than as a curse directed at a foreign state.
Fagan also accepted that Farhat had been paid to carry out the vandalism and said the cause appeared to be a “serious miscarriage of justice.” Despite the ruling, Farhat remains in prison after the NSW parole authority rejected his release for a second time.
The case has sparked debate over how Farhat’s actions were classified and whether he was treated more harshly because of allegations linking his conduct to extremism.
