By Fergus Hunter
Underworld hitman Abuzar Sultani and his loyal lieutenant have been sentenced to life in prison for three gangland murders described by a Supreme Court judge as a “largely mindless killing spree” driven by commercial profit and personal gratification.
Sultani and his murder squad were sentenced on Friday morning for the killings of Pasquale Barbaro, Mehmet Yilmaz and Michael Davey in 2016. The details of the trials were kept secret for years until Thursday when the court lifted sweeping non-publication orders.
A lethal crew: Siar Munshizada, Abuzar Sultani, Mirwais Danishyar and Joshua Baines. Credit: Composite
Sultani, 32, pleaded guilty to the three murder charges in 2016 and faces life in prison for his role as the leader of the crew.
Siar Munshizada, Sultani’s deputy, flatmate and a driver in all three murders plots, received the same sentence, with his role deemed indispensable to the elaborate executions.
“Each of the murders was premeditated by both of them and they both planned and prepared for their role,” Justice Des Fagan said.
Justice Fagan said the men derived personal satisfaction from killing while also carrying out the attacks as a commercial service for underworld figures.
Sultani’s offending was so extreme that only life sentences for each of the murders was an acceptable punishment, Justice Fagan found.
“The heinousness of the crimes lies in the offenders’ callous contempt for human life, their premeditation and planning, their objectives of criminal commercial advantage and depraved self gratification, the commission of the offences in public places engendering shock and fear in the community, the serial quality of the acts as a routine activity and the aggravation constituted by each murder being planned and committed in company within a close criminal organisation,” he said in his judgment.
Davey, a member of the Penrith chapter of the Rebels’ bikie gang, was likely killed to resolve gangland tensions. Yilmaz was killed following a debt dispute with Erkan Keskin, an associate of Sultani’s known as Eric the Wolf.
The November 2016 murder of Barbaro was found to be motivated by revenge, after Barbaro was implicated in the death of Sultani’s mentor Joe Antoun.
Pasquale Barbaro was shot dead in November 2016 by Sultani’s crew. Credit: Instagram
Barbaro, a self-proclaimed mafioso, was attacked by the squad outside the Earlwood home of construction identity George Alex. Barbaro died at the scene and was found with 10 bullet wounds.
Another member of Sultani’s squad, Joshua Baines, was sentenced on Friday to a non-parole period of 27 years for his role in the murder of Barbaro. His full prison sentence will expire in 2054.
A fourth man, Mirwais Danishyar, was sentenced to a prison term of at least 11 years for his role in the Barbaro murder.
The men were largely expressionless on Friday as they appeared via audiovisual link from a maximum security prison. At the end of the sentencing, Munshizada held up a sign saying “bias dog” and said: “Triple life. Are you serious?”
Abuzar Sultani, bottom left, Siar Munshizada and Mirwais Danishyar were captured together on CCTV on the night Pasquale Barbaro was murdered.
NSW Police homicide squad commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said the Supreme Court sentence delivered a “knockout blow” to an organised crime group.
“The sentences that’s just been handed down by Justice Fagan reflects the gravity and the level of violence of the offences committed,” Superintendent Doherty said.
He said Sultani’s group had been highly sophisticated and had required a major and well-resourced police investigation to bring them to justice.
“They carried out killings as an enterprise and it took a very highly skilled and adept set of investigators to outsmart them,” he said.
The charges were dealt with in seven trials over 2020 and 2021. A web of suppression and non-publication orders were put in place from 2018 to ensure the trials were fair and not affected by media coverage.
An MBA student at Macquarie University at the time of the killings, Sultani had risen in prominence in the underworld as head of the Burwood chapter of the Rebels bikie gang before breaking away with his squad. He was known variously as “Abz”, “the Boss”, “Bruce” and “Wayne”.
By the time of Barbaro’s murder, Sultani's group, known as “Ab’s Boys” or “the Afghanis”, was being investigated and monitored by police for their suspected involvement in serious organised crime in Sydney, including drug and firearm supply.
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