Notorious gang boss Bassam Hamzy attacked with ‘shiv’ by serial violent inmate

A notorious crime boss has been attacked with a makeshift knife by a serial violent inmate inside the state’s toughest prison.

Bassam Hamzy has been stabbed in Supermax. Pictures: Newscorp

A notorious crime boss has been attacked with a makeshift knife by a serial violent inmate inside the state’s toughest prison.

Bassam Hamzy, the Brothers 4 Life gang founder who has been behind bars for decades, was attacked with a shiv last Thursday by fellow murderer Ricky McNamara inside Goulburn Supermax.

Sources said Hamzy was still in handcuffs when he was led into a small, caged exercise yard where McNamara was already waiting.

Hamzy was set upon almost as soon as he entered the yard, with McNamara attempting to slash him with a shiv while also throwing a flurry of punches, before prison guards intervened.

Despite the seemingly premeditated nature of the attack Hamzy escaped largely unharmed, with NSW Police called in to investigate.

Bassam Hamzy was attacked by a rival inmate with a shiv inside the state’s toughest prison just days before Christmas.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Corrective Services NSW who oversee Goulburn Supermax – the state’s strictest jail – said Hamzy and McNamara had gone through a strict vetting process before being put in the yard together.

“At about 8am on Thursday, 21 December 2023 two inmates were undertaking approved exercise together in the yard at the High Risk Management Correctional Centre in Goulburn,” the statement said.

“One inmate assaulted the other inmate who sustained minor injuries as a result.

“Chemical munitions were deployed and both inmates were secured safely. NSW Police were notified and attended the scene.”

The prison yard fight is nothing new for either Hamzy or McNamara, who in recent years have both made headlines for brawls behind bars.

On the other side of Hamzy’s jail cell (right), is an exercise yard which he shares with one other inmate – who until last week, was Ricky McNamara.

Hamzy infamously went toe-to-toe with Talal Alameddine, a convicted terrorist and the younger brother of underworld kingpin Rafat Alameddine, in an identical exercise yard at Goulburn Supermax in 2019.

During that incident Hamzy received extensive wounds to his face after being repeatedly punched by the younger Talal.

While once being close and even in business together, in the years since that incident both mens’ families – the Hamzys and Alameddines – have been heavily involved in a bloody tit-for-tat gang war, which has seen two of Bassam’s brothers killed and three other relatives die.

McNamara, who is serving time for murder, was not known to have any issues with Hamzy before last Thursday’s incident.

He has been known however to have a history of fashioning shivs to attack other inmates, including an attempted beheading of a sex pest in Long Bay jail in 2022.

The high, barbed-wire walls, of Goulburn Supermax prison. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

In that attack McNamara used two makeshift blades to try and cut the throat of the convicted sex offender, before throwing the blades on the roof of the yard and casually walking off.

“I attacked him, choked him and tried to cut his head off,” McNamara later told a guard.

“He was talking about his crimes in the yard, about kids, I was abused as a kid, and I won’t stand for that.”

For that attack McNamara was transferred from Long Bay to Goulburn Supermax.

A NSW Police spokesperson said no charges had so far been laid over last week’s incident, but that the investigation was ongoing.