Judge rules Bankstown nurses video inadmissible

A judge has ruled that the video of two Sydney nurses allegedly threatening to kill Israeli patients cannot be used as evidence at their upcoming trial, finding it was recorded unlawfully.

Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 27, and Ahmad Rashad Nadir, 28, who were stood down from Bankstown Hospital after the footage went viral in February last year, are set to face trial in the NSW District Court on August 31. Both have pleaded not guilty.

On Tuesday, Judge Michael McHugh determined that Israeli content creator Max Ilinski — known online as Max Veifer — had recorded the video unlawfully, and ruled it inadmissible.

“Ultimately, I have come to the firm view that all the video evidence must be excluded from each of the trials of the applicants,” he said.

The ruling follows a months-long bid by the defence to have the footage thrown out, on the grounds it breached NSW laws prohibiting the recording of private conversations without consent. The pair were matched with Ilinski on a cam chat app that connects strangers around the world, while working at Bankstown Hospital. Ilinski recorded the exchange and published it to his more than 100,000 social media followers.

Judge McHugh said the alleged remarks were “on their face and at the very least likely highly disturbing to right-minded people everywhere”, but stressed that whether the offences were made out to the high criminal standard was “an entirely different set of questions” for a jury to decide.

The judge made clear his decision was not intended to express any view on what Ilinski referred to as “the war” or on antisemitism generally. The majority of his reasons cannot be published due to a court order.

Without the video, the prosecution will rely on Ilinski’s testimony. The Australian reported that the commonwealth has an active application for him to give evidence via video link from Israel, though prosecutors had hoped to have him travel to Sydney to appear in person.

Outside court, Abu Lebdeh’s lawyer, Rayan Kadidi called it a “major victory” and said she did not believe there was any evidence to charge her client, who had lost her job and suffered “severe hardship”, the ABC reported.

Nadir’s solicitor Zemarai Khatiz said the exclusion of the evidence meant the “prosecution case will collapse”, and that prosecutors would need to decide whether to proceed or drop the case, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

In the two-and-a-half minute video, Nadir allegedly told Ilinski: “You have no idea how many (Israeli people) come to this hospital … I send to Jahannam,” using the Arabic word for hell. Abu Lebdeh allegedly said that if an Israeli patient came into the hospital, “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.”

Abu Lebdeh has pleaded not guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, and to threatening violence to a group. Nadir has pleaded not guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend. Both were stood down by NSW Health and issued a two-year ban from working with NDIS participants.