Jury’s out for love: Farhad and Mumtaz Qaumi ‘married’ women who served on their jury

A pair of brothers convicted over two of Sydney’s most high-profile gangland murders fell in love with female jurors presiding over their case and later “married” them from behind bars, it can be revealed for the first time.

A pair of brothers convicted over two of Sydney’s most high-profile gangland murders fell in love with female jurors presiding over their case and later “married” them from behind bars, it can be revealed for the first time.

Farhad and Mumtaz Qaumi are serving a combined total of 104 years in prison for their violent crimes while members of the infamous Brothers for Life gang, including the 2013 murders of both Mahmoud Hamzy and Joe Antoun.

But during the NSW Supreme Court trial, the Qaumis sparked relationships with two women on the jury deciding their fate.

The Road To War: Watch all three episodes

The jurors were ultimately dismissed from the trial after police complained about flirtatious behaviour between them and the Qaumis - with suppression orders initially put in place over their dismissal.

“There was a point in the trial where a number of us in court observed interactions between two of the jurors, in particular Farhad and Mumtaz Qaumi - interactions which seemed very inappropriate to us,” NSW Police Homicide Squad Detective Glen Browne said.

“We brought them to the attention of the Crown prosecutor. In the end, myself and a colleague prepared statements about what we’d observed.

“It led to my colleague and I, and the solicitor from the DPP, being put in the witness box about our observations.”

During the trial three jurors were implicated in flirtatious behaviour, with one referred to as the “young juror” seen to be smiling over at Farhad Qaumi and “biting (her) right finger and looking at Qaumis”.

She also was overheard saying: “I looked over and he smiled at me so I smiled back.”

Pictured is Mumtaz Qaumi.

Farhad Quami Picture: Channel 7

On the first occasion, Justice Peter Hamill who was overseeing the trial, believed the behavior may not have been as a result of flirting.

“But there was a point not long after that in the trial where the Justice made his own observations and as a result of that one of the jurors was examined in the witness box and ultimately, two of the jurors were discharged from the jury,’’ Detective Browne said.

In 2020, Farhad Qaumi, 50, was sentenced to 58 years jail for offences including murder and manslaughter, while Mumtaz, 40, received a maximum sentence of 46 years for similar charges.

Their younger brother Jamil, 33, also a part of the Brothers for Life gang, is serving 30 years for attempted murder and other charges.

After the trial, phone conversations between Fahad, Mamtaz and the jurors, recorded by Correctives Services NSW, were obtained by NSW Police.

“We ended up uncovering our own evidence, telephone calls from the jail that the two Qaumi brothers had been communicating with those two jurors and formed personal relationships with them, which continued after the trial, (and) after their convictions,” Detective Browne said.

“And ultimately, they would marry in some form whilst in jail.”

It is not known precisely what form of “marriage” the couples took, or if their relationships are in any way ongoing.

Chief Inspector Glen Browne. Picture: Tim Hunter.

While the juror romances were kept under wraps, the case was full of other headline-making news, including a vicious courtroom brawl where two of the Qaumi brothers turned on another Brothers for Life member on trial with them.

“Two of the Qaumi brothers attacked another one of the accused in the dock,” Detective Browne said.

“He stabbed him with a pen in the neck, and that involved Mumtaz Qaumi attacking the other accused, and then the younger brother Jamal jumped in and started attacking the same victim.

“It was broken up by the Corrective Services officers.”

The incredible revelations and interview with Detective Browne are a centrepoint of the latest episode of The Daily Telegraph’s new mini docu-series, The Road to War.

The third episode, out Monday, finishes looking at the tit-for-tat battle that engulfed Brothers for Life when the gang, started by Bassam Hamzy while in jail himself, saw its Bankstown and Blacktown chapters go to war on the streets.

It finishes by revisiting the Elmir and Ahmad feud that kicked off in 2015, resulting in four men being shot dead in tit-for-tat shootings.

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