Hanna John Safi: Belfield man sacks lawyer in extortion case

The bizarre attempt to free a murderer from jail by extorting a grieving widower into confessing has been revealed in full for the first time.

UPDATE

The bizarre fabricated story behind a plan to stitch up a grieving widower for the murder of his wife was concocted in a bid to free the man jailed for two decades over the brutal crime, it can be revealed.

Underworld figure Hanna John Safi, 43, is facing years in jail over trying to extort $300,000 from Dr Khalid Qidwai, whose wife was brutally bashed to death inside their Henley mansion in 2011.

Documents tendered to the Downing Centre District Court last week detail how police unravelled what was an extraordinary attempt to potentially free convicted murderer Tony Halloun and send an elderly, innocent widower to jail.

Safi appeared suited in court and shocked his lawyer in announcing his services were no longer needed.

Safi’s plot to extort Mr Qidwai was concocted with the woman’s murderer Tony Halloun, pictured, while both men were in jail.

Safi pleaded guilty to demand money with menaces intending to obtain a gain after a charge of perverting the course of justice was dropped.

Safi, according to court documents, built up such a bond with Halloun in jail that after leaving prison in March 2019 he was listed on his registered call list.

The agreed statement of facts sets out the elaborate plan with its own plot, twists, turns and fictional side characters as if it were ripped from the script of a Hollywood thriller.

Safi posed as “Omar Abou-Marium”, a hit man who falsely claimed he had killed Shahnaz Qidwai at the doctor’s request and through various phone numbers harassed Dr Qidwai six months after he was released into the community.

The end goal of the campaign of intimidation, according to court documents, was to provide Halloun’s parents with a USB of Dr Qidwai’s confession which would ultimately see Tony Halloun released from jail.

Safi pleaded guilty in the local court earlier this year.

But the confession never came.

The facts sheet states Abou-Mariam (Safi) called Dr Qidwai on his personal mobile phone and his practice dozens of times to demand $300,000 or he would show the hammer covered in his fingerprints to police and “go to the media mate”.

No murder weapon was ever mentioned in Halloun’s 2014 Supreme Court trial.

In one ultimatum detailed in the court documents, Dr Qidwai was told he no longer had to pay the money but would have to hand himself in to Granville police station and confess.

Safi’s fictional Abou Mariam, after weeks of calling and texting, then detailed another false twist in the narrative that Dr Qidwai, a retired medical practitioner, had paid to have him killed in Lebanon and silenced forever.

The documents state for that, Safi wanted an extra $200,000.

In messages to the widower, he said: “As far as the threats are concerned you tried having me killed so I’ve been pretty civilised by maintaining only threats and not physically hurting you yet.

Police were listening in on the calls to an elderly Dr Khalid Qidwai, pictured here in 2011 after the verdict was announced in the Supreme Court.

“Then you sent me to f*****g Lebanon and they tried f*****g killing me over there.

“I went to f*****g Lebanon because you’re a dog of a friend.

“All the boys down Goulburn (prison) are f*****g p****d off with you. You hired the boys to f*****g bash that f*****g Lebanese c***, what’s his name, Tony (Halloun).”

Dr Qidwai had already contacted Burwood police about the calls while Safi continued for weeks, introducing another character by the name of Abu Ahmed who he said also knew of the fake story that the doctor killed his wife.

Safi said Dr Qidwai’s motive, the facts state, was that his wife was divorcing him because he had an affair with his receptionist.

Safi, who sacked his barrister this week, is still looking for an experienced lawyer to take on his case.

He was due to be sentenced last week when he changed his legal representation in the courtroom.

He is due back in the District Court in June.

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EARLIER

Shock twist in widower extortion case

By Anton Rose on April 30, 2020

A man who plotted to extort a grieving north shore widower has stunned the court by sacking his barrister the day he was to face sentencing.

Hanna “John” Safi appeared briefly in the Downing Centre District Court on Friday morning only for his barrister Marcus Juhasz to announce he was withdrawing his services as the 42-year-old faces potentially years in jail if convicted.

Mr Juhasz said he was ready to proceed before Safi arrived in the courtroom to sack him, leaving the crown prosecutor and Judge Jennie Girdham bemused by the late decision.

Safi attempted to extort $300,000 from the husband of murdered Henley woman Shahnaz Qidwai in 2019.

Safi concocted the plan with Ms Qidwai’s murderer Tony Halloun after both men met behind bars at Lithgow Jail in 2012 and began a campaign of intimidation which included a series of threatening phone calls.

Halloun is currently serving a 24-year jail sentence after a jury convicted him of brutally bashing the north shore mother in 2011.

The 12 men and women accepted a decade ago he killed Mrs Qidwai after he was caught stealing while working on the family’s driveway.

His trial at the time heard he had threatened the family for money to pay back his own debts.

According to court documents the bizarre and brazen sequence of events was uncovered by police who had been listening in on the calls to Mr Qidwai, now 73

Safi threatened the grieving widower and requested the money on a number of occasions between September and November in 2019.

Safi is currently on bail after posting a $1.2 million surety in the Supreme Court.

Late last year police had reportedly uncovered more evidence which included text messages and more phone calls they say are central to the plot.

Safi’s instructing solicitor Sam Saadat told the District Court on Friday morning he would be looking for a new barrister.

“Those are my instructions,” he said.

Safi has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and menaces with intent to obtain gain/cause loss and his case has been adjourned to be heard again in the District Court at a later date.