An inmate who performed an Islamic exorcism on his cousin in jail has told a Sydney judge the man "got off lightly" after disrespecting his religion.
Bourhan Hraichie, 22, kept Sameh Bayda hogtied with strips of bed sheet for about half an hour in Goulburn Supermax in May 2017, lashing him with a cable about 30 times.
Sydney's Downing Centre District Court today heard Hraichie was offended when Bayda bragged about not performing morning prayers, and punched him in the jaw.
Hraichie told the court Bayda agreed to go along with the Ruqyah — a form of exorcism — after some persuasion.
"He said very horrendous things about Islam," Hraichie said through a video link.
"He got off very lightly with just a punch.
"That's all he got — a punch and a few lashes."
The court heard the victim was "crying uncontrollably", thought he was going to die and had "lost hope completely" when his neck was allegedly threatened with a razor blade, eventually agreeing to repent.
Hraichie claimed he was holding the blade to Bayda's rat's tail.
The 22-year-old said the exorcism procedure often resulted in a "jinn", or devil, exiting the possessed person and it was "very visible" when this occurred.
He eventually realised Bayda was not possessed.
Hraichie represented himself and pleaded guilty to detaining a person with intent to obtain an advantage and common assault part-way through a judge-alone trial.
He entered his pleas only after he had cross-examined Bayda for four days and admitted he always intended to plead guilty.
"I wanted to put him in the box and drive him crazy," he said.
Hraichie said he did not regret his charges because "in the laws of Allah, I have a right to defend the religion".
Hraichie's previous sentences include a 34-year term imposed last year for carving an Islamic State-inspired message into another inmate's forehead.
During cross examination, he openly questioned what the court could do to punish him.
"What, are you going to kill me? If you kill me I'm a martyr... if you expel me, that's migration," he said.
"I'm not living for this world, I'm living for the next world. Paradise is eternal."
Judge Jane Culver will deliver her sentence on March 5.
