Tunisia Outraged: Denzel Washington Cast as Hannibal in new movie

Marble bust of Hannibal Barca, ca. 3rd century BCE

Denzel Washington's casting as Hannibal in upcoming Netflix movie sparks race row in Tunisia

• Netflix are accused of making a potential 'historical error' in casting Denzel Washington as historic military leader Hannibal 
• It comes after the streaming giant sparked outrage by casting a black actress as Egyptian empress Cleopatra 

Netflix's decision to cast Denzel Washington as historic military leader Hannibal in its upcoming blockbuster has sparked a furious race row in Tunisia. 

The streaming giant is accused of making a potential 'historical error' in casting Washington, who is black, as the ancient Carthaginian general.

Netflix's decision to cast Denzel Washington as historic military leader Hannibal in its upcoming blockbuster has sparked a furious race row in Tunisia. 

The streaming giant is accused of making a potential 'historical error' in casting Washington, who is black, as the ancient Carthaginian general. 

Outrage over the casting spilled into Tunisian parliament and sparked an online petition calling on Tunisia's Ministry of Culture to 'take action against the attempt to steal our history.'

The controversy in the African nation comes months after nearby Egypt was also embroiled in a Netflix scandal over docudrama 'Cleopatra', which was accused of 'blackwashing' after hiring a black actress to play the Macedonian-Greek empress. 

Denzel Washington (pictured in April 2023) has been cast as ancient military leader Hannibal for an upcoming Netflix blockbuster, sparking fury in Tunisia, where Carthage was located

Hannibal was a Carthaginian general famed for leading his army - including African war elephants - across the Alps as he laid siege to the Roman Empire in 218 BC. Hannibal is shown counting the rings of Roman nobles killed at the battle of Cannae.

The row over Washington's selection in the film's lead role sparked a wave of criticism online, which then erupted in the halls of the Tunisian parliament, according to French outlet Courrier International.

Tunisian Member of Parliament Yassine Mami argued that the chamber 'needs to take a position on this subject', as he felt 'there is a risk of falsifying history.'

'This is about defending Tunisian identity and listening to the reactions of civil society,' he said.  

Tunisian newspaper La Presse also took a public stance against Washington's casting in an editorial, claiming that the decision is 'according to Tunisians and many observers, a historical error.' 

Washington is set to team up with director Anthony Fuqua in the film, the latest in a long line of collaborations between the pair. 

Hannibal was born in 247 BC and was of West Asian Semitic origin, being born in the region of Carthage - now Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. 

He is considered by many historians to be among the greatest military leaders in history, and his career included a famous siege of Rome in 218 BC when he led African war elephants across the Alps. 

Denzel Washington (right) is set to team up again with director Antoine Fuqua (left) in the blockbuster Hannibal. The two have collaborated a number of times

Hannibal was of West Asian Semitic origin, and was born in the region of Carthage - now Tunis, the capital of Tunisia 

Experts agree that he was of Phoenician heritage.

Tunisia's outrage at the casting has come at a time of heightened racial tensions in the nation, which has seen President Kais Saied allege that sub-Saharan migrants are flooding the nation to turn the majority-Arab nation 'purely African.' 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12855365/Netflix-Denzel-Washington-Hannibal-Tunisia.html

Tunisians vowed to 'avenge' the death of a 41-year-old Tunisian man after he was stabbed to death during an altercation with three suspected Cameroonian migrants

Hundreds of Tunisians gathered in the streets and blockaded streets by burning tyres while demanding the eviction of all illegal migrants.

Dozens of African migrants were left injured after being thrown from balconies and attacked with 'swords'.

Police chased dozens of migrants from their homes to the cheers of city residents, before loading them into police cars.

Footage showed migrants lying on the ground, their hands on their heads, surrounded by residents armed with sticks, who waited for police to arrive to hand them over.

Police then detained some migrants and deported them as far away as the Libyan border, more than 200 miles away.

President Kais Saied accused hordes of illegal migrants of bringing violence and alleged a 'criminal plot' to change the country's demographic make-up.

He ordered security forces to expel any migrants living in Tunisia illegally. 

Sub-Saharan African migrants protest outside the headquarters of the International Organisation for Migration to demand their evacuation from Tunisia

Migrants shout in front of the UNHCR headquarters in Tunisia

Ivorians outside their country’s embassy in Tunis.

Muslim Crime Lords in Melbourne

Inside the making of a crime lord: Full untold story of Melbourne gang boss Kazem Hamad as he is unmasked and his reign of terror is exposed

• Melbourne crime kingpin Kazem Hamad revealed 
• He is alleged to be directing illegal tobacco turf war 
• READ MORE: Melbourne gang figure 'Afghan Ali' gunned down

A ruthless gangland kingpin causing widespread havoc on the streets of Melbourne, despite being deported overseas, has been unmasked for the first time. 

Kazem 'Kaz' Hamad, 39, is suspected by detectives of leading a powerful Middle Eastern organised crime network continuing to run amok in the city as he pulls the strings from foreign sanctuaries like Dubai. 

Police believe Hamad is behind a recent wave of criminal activity - including the fire-bombing of multiple tobacco stores, a murder and a plot to desecrate the grave of the sister of a gangland rival - since he was released from prison earlier this year. 

Hamad is understood to have gone from a minor player in Melbourne's underworld when he was sent to prison eight years ago for his part in a heroin trafficking ring, to unleashing an explosively violent attempt to control the city's turf.

Even though his citizenship was revoked and he was deported upon his release Hamad - known by everyone including police as Kaz - has been able to keep a tight grip on his criminal empire in Australia via encrypted communications from Dubai and other Middle Eastern locations.

Kaz Hamad (left) could only be revealed as a key figure in the Melbourne underworld on Tuesday after an eight-and-half-year suppression order was lifted 

Hamad (centre) is suspected by police of directing an illicit tobacco turf war that has seen more then 30 fire-bombings carried out in Melbourne

One of the dozens of smoke shops that have gone up in flames as Hamad muscles in on the turf of a well known crime network that runs the city's tobacco black market

Hamad emigrated to Australia with his family as a 14-year-old in 1998 and settled in Melbourne, a far cry from the sweltering southern Iraq city of Basra where he was born.

His first proper run-in with the law was just three years later in 2001 when he was arrested aged 17, reports the The Age, who spoke with police and gangland sources to compile a brief history of Hamad.

Despite consistently popping up on the police radar, it wasn't until August 2011 that he did his first proper jail stint. 

In that year he was sentenced to 30 months for kidnapping and bashing and was suspected of being involved in at least three other gangland enforcement incidents, though witnesses were too scared to speak. 

According to psychological reports tendered to the court, his family briefly returned to Iraq following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime and his brother was killed in a 2009 bombing attack, which has some influence on Hamad's ruthlessness in criminal circles.

He formed a close network of associates in Melbourne's west and was close to well-known former Bandidos bikie boss Toby Mitchell.

He had a string of smaller convictions including for assault, armed robbery and burglary. 

But in December 2014, he was charged with serious drug trafficking offences when detectives cracked a $6million heroin smuggling network. He was later released on bail.

Four months later in April 2015, he first made newspapers when the brother of his wife Safa, 39-year-old Khalad Abouhasna, was gunned down in the driveway of his Altona Meadows home.

Hamad narrowly escaped getting shot himself and one month later a court issued a suppression order on his identity for his own protection. 

Hamad was a mid-level player in Melbourne's underworld ten years ago (pictured in 2015) but was sentenced to eight years jail for heroin trafficking

CCTV showed an arsonist catch fire himself when he tried to fire-bomb a Melbourne tobacco shop earlier this year 

Detectives allege he made connections in jail which he is now using to control his turf in the city despite living in Dubai and other Middle Eastern sanctuaries

By September 2015 his citizenship was revoked over his heroin trafficking arrest and he was sent to an immigration detention centre on Christmas Island with the intention of the then-Liberal government to send him back to Iraq.

While there he continued to operate his fledging criminal network using burner phones until a judge ordered him to return to Melbourne to answer to the drug trafficking charges.

He was then sent to Victoria's notorious Barwon prison, with his sentence reduced to eight years after handing over his weapons cache and a successful appeal. 

He used his jail stint to build connections to other major organised crime figures. 

Hamad's release from prison and deportation this year seems to have only fuelled his determination to assert his influence in Melbourne, with the city rocked by more than 30 tobacco store fire-bombings as he allegedly attempts to muscle in on the lucrative tobacco black market. 

Detectives believe some of the arsons are ordered by a longstanding crime network that controls the trade to protect their turf, but the majority are orchestrated by Hamad. 

In July, the war hit a new low with the resting place of Meshilin Marrogi, the sister of Hamad's rival George Marrogi, broken into on the second level of a mausoleum in Preston cemetery. 

She died from Covid in 2021. 

CCTV was released of two men breaking into the scared site and attempting to drag away her coffin, but instead smashing a glass panel and stealing a $100,000 diamond ring when they discovered the lift was broken.

Meshilin Marrogi's casket was busted open by two men on July 30 in a plot desecrate her body but they were thwarted by a broken lift 

Pictures of Notorious Crime Family founder George Marrogi with his sister. They were put on display for her funeral, which Marrogi missed because he was in jail 

Police suspect Hamad ordered the theft due to a bitter feud with Marrogi, who is serving a long prison sentence for drug trafficking and the 2016 broad daylight shooting of Hamad's associate Kadir Ors.

Though never formerly charged, police reportedly suspect Marrogi was involved in ordering the 2015 hit that led to Abouhasna's death and that the intended target was actually Hamad. 

He is suspected to have gunned down Ors to prevent a rumoured retaliation hit. 

Then in August this year underworld figure Mohammed Akbar Keshtiar, known as 'Afghan Ali', was gunned down in Melbourne's South Yarra about 11.40pm on a Friday night just metres from busy nightlife hotspot of Chapel Street.

Keshtiar, 53, had emigrated to Australia as a teenager and was involved in the city's criminal networks since at least 2000, when Hamad had been first making his mark. 

Earlier this month, Victoria police said a central figure was involved in Melbourne's recent crime surge but did not reveal a name.

At a press conference last week, Detective Inspector Graham Banks of Victoria Police's Lunar taskforce, said the man suspected to be behind ordering the theft of Ms Marrogi's coffin was also suspected of 'leading a significant criminal enterprise which is impacting not just Victoria but other states'.

'He is directing, we would say, the majority of the crime that's been the subject of why this taskforce has been stood up. He's directing it from the top of the pyramid.'

'I'm concerned about the recklessness of this group in particular.'

'It's a thing that's emerging across Australia where we have high-level organised criminals living overseas, directing harm into the community. Reckless abandon is how they go about it because they're often in countries without extradition.'   

The suppression order on Hamad's identity, which was extended to eight-and-half years expired on Tuesday allowing him to be finally unmasked as the man police allege is a key player in the recent escalating tensions.

Unmasked alleged Melbourne crime kingpin Kaz Hamad (left) at the AFL with ex-Bandido bikie Toby Mitchell (centre) and Mongol bikie Tyrone Bell (right)  

Hamad had his visa was cancelled when he was first sent to Christmas Island and was sent packing to Iraq immediately on his release from prison but stayed there only briefly.

He moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where he had been directing his tobacco turf war but was recently booted out courtesy of lobbying by Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. 

He is understood to be still in the Middle East though authorities have not revealed his whereabouts. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12852067/Melbourne-gang-boss-Kazem-Hamad-unmasked.html

Fire damage at a tobacco shop, one of more than 30 arson attacks staged during “tobacco wars” between Kazem Hamad and a notorious Melbourne crime family

CCTV footage of an arson incident in Moonee Ponds on May 26, 2023, where the offender catches alight.

The aftermath of a suspicious fire in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.