THE man whipped 40 times with an electrical cord has told he a court he "trusted" one of his alleged attackers, and still believes in the Muslim faith.

But Cristian Martinez has rejected a suggestion that he accepted the punishment as part of his faith, saying "I never heard the phrase Sharia law until after (the incident)."

Zakaryah Raad, 21, Tolga Cifci, 21, Wassim Fayad, 44 and Cengiz Coskun, 22 have all pleaded not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm after the alleged attack at Mr Martinez's Silverwater home in July last year.

They also deny stealing CCTV from the 32-year-old's home.

Mr Martinez told the court today that Fayad, who he calls Brother Fadi, had "always given me good advice and never let me down" during the three years they had known each other prior to the incident last year.

The court heard Mr Martinez asked for his help after drinking and taking cocaine at the Ivy nightclub.

Mr Martinez, who said today he is still "100 per cent committed" to being a Muslim has described vomiting and begging for the lashes to stop.

He said he contacted a sheik the next day to ask about the lashings "and if it was for real."

"I explained to him what had happens and he told me, he goes it was wrong, it was wrong for them (to do it)," he said.

He rejected a suggestion from Fayad's lawyer that "you thought this was the punishment you needed to rid you of drug and alcohol addiction."

"I just trusted Brother Fadi," Martinez said.

Yesterday, Martinez sais his attackers told him it was his body being "cleansed" by Allah and the "unbearable pain" was so bad he wanted to jump from his balcony rather than face more lashings.

"I knew I had done the wrong thing, but I couldn't believe I was getting these hits," he said.



The hearing continues before Magistrate Brian Maloney.

