Sat 03 October 2020:
“Islamophobia needs to end. Violence against women needs to stop,”
An Australian man who punched and stamped on a pregnant woman in a suspected Islamophobic attack has been jailed for three years.
Stipe Lozina, 44, assaulted Rana Elasmar, 32, in a cafe in Sydney in November 2019 after asking her for money. He knocked her onto the floor, striking her at least 14 times and stamping on her head.
Before attacking Elasmar, who was 38 weeks pregnant at the time and was wearing a hijab, Lozina had shouted that “Muslims” had attacked his mother.
“I made a conscious decision to turn my abdomen away from his punches,” Elasmar said. “I wanted to protect my baby.”
Lozina was restrained by members of the public before his arrest. “If nobody intervened, I could have been killed,” Elasmar said.
HORRIFIC VIDEO EMERGES OF HEAVILY-PREGNANT MUSLIM WOMAN ATTACKED (VIDEO)
Lozina, who the court noted had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, chose to represent himself at the trial, interrupting court proceedings — held via video link — several times and “frequently” lapsing into “incoherent rants,” local media reported.
Judge Christopher Craigie said Lozina was “obviously unwell” and held “obsessive” opinions about Muslims.
“The assault was one with a grave potential to cause very serious harm to both the victim and her unborn child,” Craigie said during sentencing on Thursday.
Elasmar’s baby was born safely later in 2019, but she noted that though she had been spared major physical trauma, she had suffered psychologically in the aftermath of the attack.
A heavily pregnant Muslim woman was brutally attacked, repeatedly punched and stomped in the head by a man in a #Sydney cafe.
The Police say the attacker was screaming anti-#Islam slurs at the women who were all wearing head scarves.#Australia #Islamophobia #Parramatta #Hijab pic.twitter.com/PvuwBpFvos
— DOAM (@doamuslims) November 21, 2019
But the court heard she had suffered lasting trauma since, including fears about being in public and explaining the attack to her four children.
“Islamophobia needs to end. Violence against women needs to stop,” she said last month.
Lozina refused legal help and represented himself in court. During his trial, he made many incoherent rants, Australian media reported.
The judge noted that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had a “longstanding struggle with mental illness”.
