Brothers 4 Life boss Bassam Hamzy ordered his brother to be shot in legs for ‘discipline’

BROTHERS 4 Life founder Bassam Hamzy ordered a hit on his younger brother for cheating him over drugs and ripping off customers.

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BROTHERS 4 Life founder Bassam Hamzy ordered a hit on his younger brother for cheating him over drugs and ripping off customers.

Even though Hamzy was behind bars serving a 21-year sentence for murder, previously unreleased phone call recordings reveal the crime lord — one of the state’s most notorious criminals — contacted several guns-for-hire around Sydney and requested their services to shoot his sibling, Haysam Hamzy, as a disciplinary measure.

The conversations were intercepted by the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad (MEOCS) on May 3, 2008, while Hamzy was in Lithgow Correctional Centre.

Lithgow Correctional Centre held Bassam Hamzy when he made the extraordinary requests.

Despite his classification, Hamzy managed to obtain a smuggled mobile phone and used it to co-ordinate a multi-million dollar drug empire from his cell involving his father, brothers, and friends.

Within minutes of setting up their wiretap, investigators happened upon calls that showed Hamzy plotting against his brother and feeling embarrassed by his behaviour.

“In the mafia,” Hamzy said in one conversation, “if you disrespect the head of the family they cut your f.....g head off. If he (Haysam) gets away with it, everyone is gunna think they can get away with it.”

The conversations reveal for the first time the thinking behind of one of Australia’s most notorious criminals and provide insight into the crime family, which Hamzy ruled with an iron fist. When another brother, Ghassan, tried to talk Hamzy out of it, he too was warned.

“Don’t question me,” Hamzy said, “or I swear to God I’ll shoot you too. I don’t give a f... who he is, bro. No one f...s with me, bro.”

Hamzy’s instructions for the hit were specific: the gun had to be a .22 calibre weapon — a “two-two” — which would cause searing pain but not permanent damage. The bullet had to be shot into Haysam’s leg, and he would also have to present himself to accept the punishment.

One hitman contacted was Mustapha ‘Wak’ Assoum, a kickboxer who managed to secure the handgun for the job but then backed out when he realised Haysam was the target. Assoum was killed later that year in an unrelated hit. Hamzy’s next call was to Ahmed “Glebe” Diab, who refused the contract.

Haysam Hamzy was going to be shot in the legs.

Bassam Hamzy of the B4L gang.

The only person willing to accept the contract was Hamzy’s cousin, Mohammed Hamze, who told a court much later that he took the job out of duress. He was acquitted using this defence.

In further conversations, Hamzy said he would look like a “dog weak c...” if Haysam wasn’t dealt with. He upped the stakes to murder when days passed and Haysam hadn’t been found. “I know where he signs on … If he doesn’t come and face the music I’m going to be waiting for him in front of the cop shop,” Hamzy said to a friend.

Haysam subsequently fled Australia and was arrested on his return to Sydney for violating bail conditions. At a sentencing hearing in 2013, Hamzy revealed he had reconciled with his brother and now had a nephew named in his honour.