Excerpt:
A court has declared Islamic sharia law is no excuse for viciously flogging a man in his own home as punishment for drinking at a bar.
In an Australian legal first, magistrate Brian Maloney yesterday found four men guilty of assaulting a Muslim convert in a religion-inspired whipping.
Christian Martinez, 32, was held down and beaten 40 times with an electrical cord in his Silverwater home in July 2011, leaving him bloodied and scarred.