An Iranian refugee mother who financed a lavish lifestyle by dealing methamphetamine will remain in jail after a desperate bid to free her failed in the state’s highest court on Friday.
Yosra Rabieh, 35, was sentenced last year to at least five and a half years in prison after being found guilty of a series of serious drug-related offences.
The mother was charged after a raid on her Sydney home, where police found a large stash of methamphetamine that had been imported from Thailand.
Rabieh and her husband Ali Maleki fled Iran in 2013 for Australia before being granted temporary protection visas.
In February 2018, the couple were charged with supplying more than 30kg of methylamphetamine, which was found in the home they shared with their two children.
When police raided his home in Asquith, north of Sydney, they found more than 32kg of methamphetamine in his garage and bedroom, along with $264,000 in cash.
Rabieh pleaded guilty in August 2019.
However, in a bizarre twist in January 2021, she withdrew her plea, with the former law student claiming that at the time she did not know what “guilty” meant.
Yosra Rabieh (right) and her husband Ali Maleki (left) fled Iran in 2013 for Australia before being granted temporary protection visas and starting a life in North Sydney.
Police found more than 32kg of methamphetamine (pictured) in his garage and bedroom.
Officers also found $264,000 in cash during raids on the family home in 2018.
Ultimately, following a trial in the District Court in early 2023, she was found guilty of supplying a commercial quantity of methamphetamine and trafficking in property proceeds of crime.
The court was told that Rabieh enjoyed benefits from the drug importation scheme, including luxury cars, shopping at designer stores such as Louis Vuitton and holidays abroad.
In September last year, she was sentenced to nine years and two months in prison, with a non-parole period of five years and six months.
At the time of the offences, neither she nor her husband were working or receiving Centrelink payments.
Maleki imported the methylamphetamine from Thailand hidden inside boxes of coal, the court was told.
In February 2018, the couple (pictured on their wedding day) were charged with supplying more than 30kg of methylamphetamine.
Maleki (pictured with his wife) imported the methylamphetamine from Thailand hidden inside boxes of coal, a District Court trial heard in early 2023.
Despite the guilty verdict, Rabieh maintained his innocence and challenged his conviction before the Court of Criminal Appeals.
On Friday, the court dismissed his appeal. He will be eligible for parole in August 2027.
For his role in the scheme, Maleki was sentenced in 2021 to a maximum of 14 years in prison, with a non-parole period of nine years and four months.
