Omer pleaded not guilty and faced a County Court jury trial, where he was found guilty in April.
Gucciardo handed Omer a maximum term of four-and-a-half years in prison on Tuesday. The maximum penalty for the offence is 12 years.
With 196 days already served, Omer will be eligible for parole in less than three years.
He gave a thumbs up to his defence lawyer as the sentence was handed down.
Omer exhibited violent behaviour towards his wife in the two years leading up to the Sudan trip, including physical abuse and threats to kill her, the judge found.
She was dependent on her husband for money as he controlled all of their finances. He confiscated her phone and limited her contact with family.
Gucciardo found the “culmination and consequence” of Omer’s pattern of coercive control towards his wife resulted in his exit-trafficking of her.
The woman described her ordeal as “nightmarish” and said Omer moved their children around to avoid her when she finally returned to Australia.
He then took the children back to Sudan and left them there. When the distraught mother went back to find them, a court stripped her of custody and threw her in prison for three days, she told a pre-sentence hearing.
Gucciardo said Omer had exploited and manipulated his wife’s vulnerable state and her dependence on him.
“Your behaviour had created fear, deprived liberty and autonomy, [using] tactics designed to isolate, degrade and control in a targeted and insidious way,” he said.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
AAP
Read the full article here
