Mick Hawi execution breakthrough: Jamal El Jaidi charged with murder, gun possession
The man who police allege drove the getaway vehicle used after Mick Hawi was brutally slain has now become the third person to be charged with his murder.
The man who police allege drove the getaway vehicle used after Mick Hawi was brutally slain has now become the third person to be charged with his murder.
The role Jamal El Jaidi, 31, allegedly played in the ex-bikie boss’s murder was revealed during a failed bail application at Burwood Local Court on Thursday.
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Police will allege Belmore panel beater and father-of-one El Jaidi drove Lone Wolf member Yusuf Nazlioglu in a Mercedes Benz to the Rockdale gym at midday on February 15 last year.
El Jaidi is accused of waiting in the car while Nazlioglu crossed the carpark and shot Hawi a dozen times in the head, face, and right shoulder.
He is accused of driving Nazlioglu to Chandler St in Bexley where the Mercedes was set alight. Then pair then allegedly got into a silver Toyota Aurion which was driven back to the garage they had left from.
Police later found a 9mm P. A. K calibre ATAK ARMS Stalker 2918 firearm at that garage. They allege El Jaidi illegally possessed it 20 minutes after Hawi’s shooting.
The gun is not alleged to be the weapon used in Hawi’s murder.
The prosecutor told the court that the case was circumstantial, with no eye witnesses, but relied on the fact that El Jaidi’s DNA was found on the driver’s seat of the alleged Toyota getaway vehicle and also on the firearm.
He told the court police would allege CCTV showed El Jaidi and Nazlioglu dressed in black on Chandler St where the Mercedes was set on fire and in a second clip on a street after the silver Toyota had been put in the garage.
But El Jaidi’s lawyer Ian Lloyd QC, assisted by solicitors Mahmoud Abbas and Mustafa Agar, told the court that the case against his client was “thin” and police could only say someone of El Jaidi’s height and build was depicted in the CCTV.
“At the end of the day what we have is a purely circumstantial case and we say in relation to both charges it is weak indeed,” he said.
“It has been conceded by the Crown and the police that at this stage those assertions go no further than a person of similar build and similar height. They are not suggesting in the statements … the CCTV shows that to be him.”
He said El Jaidi worked as a panel beater and the Toyota had been at a smash repairers from May 2017 to September 2017. Police had no evidence of where it had been for the following five months, he said. The Toyota was recovered last March at Beaconsfield.
“There is no evidence to categorically prove the circumstances of how my client’s DNA came to be in those spots in that vehicle,” he said.
He said El Jaidi had been in Lebanon for five weeks but returned on September 29 despite knowing that others had been arrested in relation to the murder.
Mr Lloyd also said El Jaidi’s sister would offer a surety of $10,000, his friend another $30,000 and former employer another $400,000. El Jaidi would also be willing to submit to electronic monitoring.
El Jaidi, who appeared via AVL, looked down and shook his head after Magistrate Ian Rodgers ultimately refused the bail application after finding cause had not been shown.
“It’s alleged that material links the accused in this matter both to one of the vehicles that’s allegedly used in the surrounds of the offence and to a pistol in a bag located in the wall of a garage or house where... two of the vehicles allegedly connected to this offence were held at one time,” he said.
Lone Wolf member Ahmad Doudar has also been charged with Hawi’s murder, while Moustafa Salami has been charged with accessory after the fact to murder.
El Jaidi’s matter will return to court on May 3 when the brief of evidence will be served.
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