STATE OF TASMANIA v MOHAMMAD NOOR AZIZI 21 MAY 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Mohammad Azizi, you are to be sentenced after having pleaded guilty to assaulting your wife. You are aged 36. You and she have been married for 18 years. You have six children aged between 4 and 18. The crime was committed on 10 September 2025. You returned home from work at about 9 pm. You and she argued about money. The argument arose from financial pressure arising from loans you had taken out to expand your businesses. The result of the argument was that you became highly emotional. Instead of leaving, as you now know you should have, you began to cry and produced a small kitchen knife. It was mostly to threaten to harm yourself, but she felt threatened also. Your 16 year old daughter took the knife from you but you then stepped around her towards your wife and punched her twice to the left side of her face very hard. You were immediately shocked by what you had done. She began to fall but you grabbed her and placed her down. Her nose and face were bleeding. Your daughter moved you away but you then began hitting yourself on the head with a ceramic teapot so hard that it broke. One of the children called the police. Your 17 year old son took you to another room where you calmed down, but when the police and ambulance arrived the situation was chaotic and the children were very upset.
Your wife was taken to hospital. She had a two centimetre cut between her nose and mouth. Her nose was broken and her nasal passage was affected. She spent the night in hospital but was discharged the following day. Her broken nose remained swollen for some time, but, fortunately, no further treatment was required. However, the cut on her face became infected and required intravenous antibiotics. There is no victim impact statement. It seems that your wife has recovered from her physical injuries, but the psychological and emotional effect is likely to be very significant.
You came to Australia from Iran with your wife and four of your children in 2016. Since then two children were born here. You have been very industrious. You have started four food businesses from scratch. You operate three yourself and one with your brother. Your crime has already had a very significant effect on you. Since September last year you have been subject to a family violence order which prohibited contact with your wife and children. The financial and practical effect on your businesses has been difficult for you and your family, but you were the cause of these things.
I accept that you were upset by the argument with your wife, but that is never an excuse for violence. Your threats to harm yourself make your conduct worse. Your crime was one of family violence. Family violence is a terrible but all too common problem. Throughout Australia, courts and the community recognise how serious it is and how much damage it does. You breached your wife’s trust in you, and badly assaulted her in what should have been the safety of your own home. It was a cowardly thing to do. It was even worse because the assault took place while your children were there. They will be affected by this too. For those reasons, a sentence of imprisonment is the only appropriate sentence. You have already spent 42 days in custody before you were admitted to bail.
I have decided, for a number of reasons primarily directed at your rehabilitation, to allow you the chance to avoid having to return to prison by suspending the balance of the term I am about to impose. You have no relevant prior convictions. When you were arrested you admitted your actions. As soon as the charges against you were finalised you pleaded guilty. I accept that you are sorry for and ashamed of what you did and you now appreciate how serious it was. It is proposed that the family violence order protecting your wife be amended to permit you to return to the family home. I am not permitted to detain you in a house in which the victim of family violence also lives so home detention is not an available sentence. However, you must clearly understand that if something like this happens again, it is highly likely that you will go to prison. I am going to order that while the suspended sentence is in force that you be supervised by a probation officer. The main aim of supervision is so that you are required to attend further programs and education. That will support you and protect your wife by reducing the chance that you will re-offend. Hopefully you have already learned an important lesson.
Imposition of a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or more may lead to your deportation under the Migration Act (Cth). I record that it is unnecessary for me to determine whether the risk of deportation is a mitigating factor because the term I decided to impose does not trigger that provision and was determined without discount or reduction for that factor.
You are convicted on the indictment. In accordance with the Family Violence Act, s 13A, I direct that the offence be recorded on your criminal record as a family violence offence. I make a family violence order in substitution for the interim order made 21 October 2025 for a period of 12 months with the following conditions:
- you must not directly or indirectly threaten, abuse or assault [name of person to be protected];
- you must not intentionally damage the premises at which she resides, or any furniture, household effects of other items which are at those premises; and
- you must not possess any firearm or ammunition or apply for any licence or permit under the Firearms Act
You are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 10 months from 9 April 2026, the balance of which is suspended for 12 months from today. There are conditions of the order that:
- you are not to commit another offence punishable by imprisonment during that period. If you breach that condition you will be required to serve the balance of the term unless that is unjust.
- during the 12 months the order is in force you will be subject to the supervision of a probation officer. The conditions the law imposes on that order will be set out in the order you will be given. These include that you must report to a probation officer at the office of Community Corrections in Launceston within three clear working days, you must submit to supervision and comply with the directions given by your probation officer, you must not leave Tasmania without permission and you must notify of any change of address.
- in addition to the core conditions, the order will also include the following special conditions that you must, during the operational period of the order:
- submit to the supervision of a Community Corrections officer as required by that officer;
- attend educational and other programs, undergo assessment and treatment for alcohol or drug dependency, submit to testing for alcohol or drug use and submit to medical, psychological or psychiatric assessment or treatment as directed by a probation officer;
- attend and complete any rehabilitation or treatment program as directed by a probation officer.