Mahmoud El-Zayat proposes to Claudette Tannous outside Wodonga Magistrates Court after arrest: Video
A COUPLE prosecuted for trafficking drugs in Wodonga, Victoria, has celebrated their release with a marriage proposal out the front of the courthouse.
The Border Mail reports that Mahmoud El-Zayat, 43, proposed to his girlfriend Claudette Tannous, 22, outside the Wodonga Magistrates Court after he was released from remand on a 12-month community corrections order on Monday.
A bystander who captured the proposal on video can be heard asking “What the f**k is going on right now?” as El-Zayat goes down on bended knee.
Tannous says yes and El-Zayat says “Claudie’s gonna marry me,” to the camera.
Tannous posted the video to Facebook with the caption “See this man right here man I would take a bullet straight to my heart for him. I would kill for him I would stop everything for this man ...
“I love you so much Mahmoud Zayat you do not understand how much love I have for you and what I am going and willing to go through for you is inexplicable.
“You still make my heart skip a beat and you still give me butterflies in my tummy you are my rock my world my life my all..... Ps YES I WILL BE YOUR WIFE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.”
El-Zayat has a tattoo that reads “Claudette for life — if you die, I die with you.”
The pair were arrested at the Sanctuary Park Motel in Wodonga in July.
El-Zayat — a father of eight — pleaded guilty to trafficking ice, and possessing guns and a prohibited weapon. He had been in custody before sentencing.
Tannous, who was sentenced in August, pleaded guilty to trafficking ice and possessing drugs. She served three months in jail.
At the time of the court case police said the pair had been making daily trips in hire cars between Melbourne and Wodonga from March to the time of their arrest.
The vehicles were searched several times, but the roof cavities where the drugs and guns were found were not checked.
The court heard that inside their hire car and motel room, police eventually uncovered 119.4 grams of methamphetamine, scales, 40 unused deal bags, expensive watches and jewellery, cocaine, marijuana, cash and a homemade gun.
El-Zayat didn’t have a job, but the duo had a $1000 a week drug and alcohol habit and regularly posted images online of new shoes and expensive clothes, reports the Border Mail.
They can be seen holding wads of cash in other images.
The court had previously heard they had blamed each other for the drugs seized.
Following their arrest, police trawled the couple’s joint Facebook page and found a photo of a grenade.
Police subsequently retrieved the grenade from El-Zayat’s car, which had been impounded by police in Melbourne following the raid.
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