A second Bankstown nurse involved in a viral video showing both he and his colleague allegedly threatening Israeli patients has been charged by Strike Force Pearl detectives.
Ahmed Rashid Nadir, who worked at the Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital in Sydney’s west, was arrested on Tuesday evening, and later charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, and possessing a prohibited drug.
The 27-year-old Bankstown man was granted bail to appear at the Downing Centre local court on 19 March.
The other nurse featured in the video, Sarah Abu Lebdeh, was charged with three offences last week: threatening violence, using a carriage service to threaten to kill and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.
There had been a delay in police speaking to Nadir, after he was taken to hospital for assessment earlier in February, when paramedics were called to his Bankstown home after a “concern for welfare” report.
In an edited video taken from a Chatroulette-style website discussion posted by the Israeli influencer Max Veifer last month, Nadir and Abu Lebdeh are shown allegedly speaking to the former soldier, who reveals in the video he served with the Israel Defense Forces.
“One day, your time will come and you will die the most horrible death,” Abu Lebdeh says on the video.
The investigation was made more complex due to “jurisdictional challenges”, given Veifer is located outside Australia.
The New South Wales police commissioner, Karen Webb, said Strike Force Pearl, the force’s antisemitism taskforce, had now arrested 15 people and laid a total of 78 charges.
“I must commend the work Strike Force Pearl detectives are doing to investigate, charge and put these individuals before the courts,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
“There is a tremendous amount of dedication and hard work going into all these investigations.
“Detectives have overcome many challenges – including huge public expectation – to put these individuals before the court,” Webb said.
The two nurses have been barred by the Australian health practitioner watchdog from working in the profession nationwide “in any context”, and had their registrations suspended by the NSW Nursing and Midwifery Council.
