Underworld figure Kemel Barakat betrayed by Ahmed Jaghbir who allegedly handed keys to hitmen

MURDERED underworld figure Kemel Barakat (right) was allegedly betrayed by a friendly locksmith who gave the hitmen a key to his home after replacing locks smashed during a police raid.

• Man arrested over murder of Kemel Barakat
• Kemel Barakat shot dead early hours in Mortlake apartment

MURDERED underworld figure Kemel Barakat was betrayed by a friendly locksmith who gave the hitmen a key to his home after replacing locks smashed during a police raid.

Tradesman Ahmed Jaghbir was charged with murder this week over the execution of the Hell’s Angel bikie by four other men as he slept at the supposedly secure waterfront apartment in May.

It is understood Barakat considered Jaghbir a friend and trusted him enough to let him into his home, the address of which was a closely guarded secret.

Ahmed Jaghbir, pictured with Salim Mehajer, has been charged with the murder of Kemel Barakat. Picture: Instagram/@salim.mehajer

In the days before his death, police carried out a firearms search at Barakat’s unit during which the lock on the front door was broken.

Left with the damage, Barakat called several associates, trying to find someone to replace the lock.

Police will allege he was led to Jagbhir, 28, a close confidant of embattled developer Salim Mehajer.

MORE: HOODED MEN CAUGHT ON CCTV BEFORE BARAKAT MURDER

Jaghbir, an electrician by trade, is accused of helping to replace Barakat’s lock and pocketing a spare key in the process. Police allege he then handed it on to Barakat’s enemies.

Barakat, 29, a former Commanchero bikie, was closely aligned to a well-known crime family who were engaged in a bloody feud with another notorious clan.

He had only moved into the building in Mortlake, in Sydney’s inner-west, shortly before he was murdered.

Hells Angel Kemel Barakat was murdered as he slept in his waterfront apartment in May.

At 2.30am on May 10, four men with their faces covered and carrying guns, walked up the rear fire stairs of Barakat’s apartment block.

They found Barakat asleep in his bedroom wearing only his boxer shorts.

Barakat was shot more than a dozen times while a woman also in the unit at the time was unharmed.

The killers fled in a Mercedes C63 wagon, which police said was stolen from Newtown in June last year.

Jaghbir, from Lidcombe, in Sydney’s west, is the first person to be arrested over the killing and is facing charges of murder, accessory before the fact to murder and participating in a criminal group.

CCTV vision of the group of men outside Barakat’s house in Mortlake. Picture: Police Media

He was among friends at Mehajir’s lavish wedding in 2015. He was also the director of Mehajer’s ambitious new wedding company, Mehajer Wedding & Event Planning.

The Lidcombe mansion of Mehajer, former Auburn deputy mayor, was swarming with police on the same day as Jaghbir’s arrest. However the search warrant was unrelated and believed to be in relation to a car crash that prevented him appearing at court.

Jaghbir is due to appear in court on November 23.