IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA VICTORIA DISTRICT REGISTRY GENERAL DIVISION. No. VID 969 of AHMED DINI & ORS Applicants.

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1 IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA VICTORIA DISTRICT REGISTRY GENERAL DIVISION No. VID 969 of 2010 AHMED DINI & ORS Applicants NICK KONSTANTINIDIS & ORS First -Seventh Respondents SIMON OVERLAND, IN HIS CAPACITY AS THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF VICTORIA POLICE Eighth Respondent STATE OF VICTORIA Ninth Respondent AFFIDAVIT OF ROBERT KOUA (Order 14, rule 2) Filed on behalf of the Applicants ARNOLD BLOCH LEIBLER Lawyers Advisers Level Collins Street Melbourne 3000 DX Melbourne Tel: Fax: Ref: (Peter Seidel)

2 2 On 11 March 20111, Robert Koua of 6/36 Holl court Flemington, unemployed, AFFIRM that: 1 I am the fourth applicant in this proceeding. Except where I otherwise indicate, I make this affidavit from my own knowledge. Where I depose to matters from information belief, I believe those matters to be true. Personal details 2 I was born in Northern Sudan on 11 October I came to Australia from Northern Sudan in My family lived in Marybyrnong for the first 6 months after we came to Australia then we moved to Flemington. I now live in Flemington with my mother Somaya, my father Yosef, my brother Alexar (aged 11) my sisters Rosa (aged 14) Hanna (aged 7). I also have two other sisters one younger brother, who is 13. My family are Christians. We speak Arabic English as well. 3 I don t have any children or dependents but I want to have children in the future. 4 My dad is working my mum has a casual job too. My parents support everyone living in our house. 5 My family live in public housing, so the rent for our unit is paid out of my parents income. I don t pay any rent at the moment. Financial circumstances 6 I have received New Start allowance payments from Centrelink since I came to Australia. I currently receive New Start payments of $250 every fortnight. I am looking for work, I started pre-apprenticeship training in carpentry on 14 February From my fortnightly New Start payments, I give about $125 to my mum each fortnight, I spend the rest on usual things like phone bills. I have also had court fines which I have had to pay on a payment plan, so I recently had to spend about $100 on those fines each month too, but I have finished paying those fines now. In late 2010 I received a fine for smoking in a public place in Flemington, which is for about $200, so I will have to pay that off now too. 8 The pre-apprenticeship study that I have now started will finish in 4 months. Then I will have about a $300 HECS/HELP debt which Job Network have said that they will MIA

3 4 changed Police stations. I think some of the officers who hassled us have gone from Flemington, but some of the new ones seem to be trying to act like them. Position regarding this claim ie I can t even look at the Police. I do not trust the Police at all. Even if I am outside Flemington, I would never think of going to the Police if I need help because of how they have treated me because I feel like they look at me in a different way. If I see Police now, I still don t want to talk to them I don t want them to talk to me. I am scared of them I try to ignore them but that does not work because they have power, so I have to deal with them sometimes. The way the Police have treated me has made me feel like I have no one to turn to like no one would listen to me if I did tell them what the Police have done to me. 17 One of my bail conditions after I was charged with armed robbery in early 2009 was that I couldn t be in Flemington from then until December 2010 (when the next court date was). All my friends family are in Flemington, I couldn t see them. I barely ever saw them during that time. I lived in Flemington with my family before then, so I even had to find a new place to live. It really upset me that I couldn t see my friends family in Flemington I used to be really angry about it. After that, I was more sad than anything, because I couldn t see the people I wanted to see. The Police said they had a reason for that condition, but I don t think they did. It definitely broke up my family during that time. Before this case went to court, the police withdrew the charges. 18 Before that bail condition I was studying year 12 in Flemington, the Police knew that. But once I was banned from Flemington, I couldn t go to school. I was meant to finish year 12 in December 2009, but I couldn t finish it because I couldn t go to school. I used to want to go to university too. Not finishing year 12 makes me feel really bad, again, I m more sad than anything. 19 My bad experiences with the Police are also continuing. On New Year s Eve at the end of 2010, I was at Flinders St Station there was a fight between some Africans New Zealers in a really crowded place. I was pepper sprayed accused of assaulting people but I hadn t done anything. Luckily, when a nice officer checked the cameras, I was cleared. What do I get for being pepper sprayed though? Nothing, I just got to go home.

4 3 help me to pay. I really hope that Job Network will help me pay because I am not working at the moment. 9 The only assets that I own are a desktop computer which is a 2008 model which cost me about $350 also a mobile phone. I don t own anything else of value. 10 I have applied for legal aid in criminal -cases use no win no fee lawyers in a civil claim. Experience with policing 11 The paragraphs relating to me in the amended claim are paragraphs 6 to 10, 16 to 20, 27 to 31, 32 to 36, 65 to 69, 70 to to 86. My main experiences with the Police that are included in this complaint involved being searched, stopped questioned, being racially taunted abused, not, having a complaint I made about my mistreatment investigated properly. 12 All the trouble I have had with the Police started when I moved to Flemington. I don t experience it everywhere I go - if I go out of the Flemington area the Police see me, they might pull me over, but in Flemington if they see me my friends, they will ask for our names then start arguing with us provoking us. The Police know my group of friends Outside the shops flats in Flemington, they always try to bully us obviously we don t want that to happen so we try to walk away. 13 I think that the Police target African-Australians in the Flemington area. I have had experiences where the Police have chased me another African friend but they have not chased our two Caucasian friends who were with us who started running with us. 14 Around Flemington, if a little incident happens involving African people, the Police will bring heaps of officers, which is unnecessary. Instead of trying to solve the problem, they try to turn us against them by provoking us threatening us. I don t underst why they would want to do this if they re Police officers. 15 Since I moved to Flemington, I have had problems with the Police. When I first moved to Flemington, my experiences with the Police were harsher than they are today. The last two years have been a bit better. I think it has calmed down a bit since we started working with Tamar Hopkins because the community has been complaining about Police behaviour I think that some of the officers have

5 5 20 Every time I see Police I still get paranoid. The Police have stressed me out. It s affected my ability to find go looking for work, because I am paranoid I am scared that my job applications will be affected. I am always getting charged with small things that I am scared will affect my job applications. 21 I am not seeking compensation, even though I would like to see the Police pay for the harm they have caused. I want the police officers who harassed me my friends to be forced out of the police force so it makes the other police officers aware that they can lose their job for behaving like that harassing people. I want an apology for their behaviour because the public should see what is happening. But if there is only an apology then that is not really going to do anything. I want more than an apology, I want people to see the Police officers who actually assaulted us then I want those officers to be fired. I think that will help people in the community to relax a bit. 22 Whether we lose this case in the end or not, I want to take it further anyway so we can make a difference. I don t want other people experiencing the same terrible things that the Police have done to me, like being assaulted by them things like that. 23 If this application fails there s a chance that we will have to pay some money if we lose the case, I still wouldn t quit my claim because it is so important. But I would have do something like enter into a payment plan to pay a maximum of $50 per month to cover what we owe if we lose, but that s all I could really afford. AFFIRMED at Flemington in the State of ) Victoria 0 Before me: 1-2 Tamar Hopkins of 22 Bellair St Kensington Vic an Australian Legal Practitioner within the meaning of the Legal Profession Act 2004

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7 4 IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA VICTORIA DISTRICT REGISTRY GENERAL DIVISION No. VID 969 of 2010 AHMED DINI & ORS ACCORDING TO THE ATTACHED SCHEDULE Applicants NICK KONSTANTINIDIS & ORS ACCORDING TO THE ATTACHED SCHEDULE First -Seventh Respondents SIMON OVERLAND, IN HIS CAPACITY AS THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF VICTORIA POLICE Eighth Respondent STATE OF VICTORIA Ninth Respondent AFFIDAVIT - CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE (Order 14, rule 5A) I, EMMA LOUISE RATTRAY, certify to the Court that the affidavit of Robert Koua affirmed on 11 March 2011 filed on behalf of the Applicants complies with Order 14, rule 2 of the Federal Court Rules. Date: t7/3/1,i... EMMA LOUISE RATTRAY Solicitor for the Applicants EMMA LOUISE RATTRAY Arnold Bioc.h Leibler Level Coll ins Street Melbourne 3000 An Australian Le iracttiofler within the meaning of the Pro essofl Act 2004 Filed on behalf of the Applicants ARNOLD BLOCH LEIBLER Lawyers Advisers Level Collins Street Melbourne 3000 DX Melbourne Tel: Fax: Ref: (Peter Seidel)