Lawyer Ali Abbas charged over plot linked to murder of teenager Brayden Dillon
SYDNEY lawyer Ali Abbas, who acted for slain bikie boss Mick Hawi, has been charged after homicide detectives raided his office and home late yesterday as part of an investigation into an alleged cover-up of teenager Brayden Dillon’s murder.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Bassam Hamzy linked to Dillon murder
- Sixth person charged over murder
- Alleged mastermind arrested at airport
SYDNEY criminal lawyer Ali Abbas has been charged with accessory after the fact to the murder of 15-year-old Brayden Dillon.
Abbas, who has acted for killer cop Glen McNamara and slain bikie boss Mick Hawi, has also been charged with knowingly participate in a criminal group and doing an act with intent to pervert the course of justice.
Police will allege Abbas co-ordinated and facilitated of the provision of false affidavits to distance key suspects from the fatal shooting and passed information relating to the murder between various people.
MORE NEWS:
Murder twist: ‘I might have hit Nathan in the head’
Psychologists’ warning on Milat’s killer nephew
How man claimed $1.7m house that he didn’t own
He has also been charged with taking a mobile phone into a jail to be used by an inmate.
The 38-year-old was arrested this morning at Surry Hills police station and was refused bail.
He is expected to face Sydney’s Central Local Court later today.
Yesterday homicide detectives raided Abbas’ office and home as part of the investigation into an alleged cover-up of teenager Dillon’s murder.
Hours before detectives turned up at the CBD chambers of the prominent solicitor, police arrived at his Monterey home with a search warrant.
But police allege Abbas drove away from his home as they arrived and he was not at his chambers when officers turned up later in the day.
Police raided his office and later forced their way into his home where they allegedly seized electronic stun devices, more than $30,000 cash, mobile phones, laptops and computers.
Homicide Squad detectives spent a few hours searching through documents in the lawyer’s level-four chambers before seizing several boxes.
The raids mark the latest development in the investigation which has already led to the arrests of six people over the 15-year-old’s death.
Brayden Dillon was asleep in his bedroom at his mother’s home in Glenfield, in Sydney’s southwest, in April last year when a gunman burst through the front door.
The gunman shooed Brayden’s mother away with his gun before creeping into her son’s room and shooting him at point blank range.
Conrad Craig has been charged with murder. Police allege Craig, who was charged with murder last year, was hired to carry out the hit.
Police allege the teen’s murder was ordered as revenge for his older brother, Joshua Dillon, allegedly stabbing another young man in 2016. Dillon has pleaded not guilty to murder.
That young man’s uncle, Abdul Abu-Mahmoud, is accused of organising and financing Brayden’s murder before leaving the country.
His brother, Mohamed Abu-Mahmoud, was arrested last week with police alleging he directed a plan to falsify affidavits that would distance his family from the gunman.
Another figure in the investigation is notorious Supermax inmate Bassam Hamzy, who is suspected of helping mastermind the murder cover-up for his friend, Abdul Abu-Mahmoud. He has not been charged with any offence over the killing.
Information was passed between the suspects through conduits, police allege, including lawyers.
According to a statement of facts tendered in court, one lawyer was paid to make copies of a brief of evidence in the case.
That evidence was then allegedly handed over to Mohamed Abu-Mahmoud, a successful property developer, so he could assess the allegations against his brother, who was overseas at the time.
The facts allege Mohamed used “several legal professionals over the past year to assist” in absolving his family from the crimes and those professionals were under investigation.