Lawyer charged after raids over murder of Brayden Dillon
PROMINENT Sydney lawyer Ali Abbas 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
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SYDNEY lawyer Ali Abbas 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.
Hours before detectives turned up at the CBD chambers of the prominent solicitor, police entered his Sydney home with a search warrant.
It is understood Abbas was spotted driving away from his home as police arrived and he was not at his chambers when officers turned up later in the day.
Abbas has been charged with accessory after the fact to murder, knowingly participate in criminal group assist crime, and do act with intent to pervert the course of justice.
Police will allege in court that Abbas coordinated and facilitated of the provision of false affidavits on behalf of others and passed information relating to the murder between various people.
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Homicide Squad detectives spent a few hours searching through documents in Abbas’ level-four chambers before seizing several boxes worth of evidence.
Abbas has represented some of the city’s most high-profile underworld figures, including bikie bosses and a disgraced former police officer.
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.