Mick Hawi murder: Moustafa Salami sentenced for concealing information about Yusuf Nazlioglu
A Sydney truckie concealed information linked to the murder investigation of former Comanchero boss Mick Hawi, a court has heard.
St George Shire Standard
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A Sydney truck driver has been spared jail time for concealing information from police as they investigated the murder of former Comanchero boss Mick Hawi.
Moustafa Salami, 41, faced Downing Centre District Court on Thursday for sentencing after pleading guilty to withholding information about Lone Wolf bikie Yusuf Nazlioglu, whom he eventually suspected was behind Hawi’s brutal execution outside a Rockdale gym in 2018.
Judge Gina O’Rourke said the Crown case was that Nazlioglu exited his parked Mercedes just after midday on February 15 and shot repeatedly at Hawi, who was sitting in his own Mercedes.
Meanwhile, the agreed facts reveal that after shooting Hawi, Nazlioglu drove to Rockdale where he torched the Mercedes, before getting into a silver Toyota and driving to Bexley, where the vehicle was stowed.
According to agreed facts, Salami moved the silver Toyota the day before Hawi’s killing.
He then picked it up two days after the murder and unloaded it at a car repairs business.
The court heard Salami lent his black Toyota Prado to Nazlioglu sometime before the murder and received it back after February 18. This car was among those used by Nazlioglu to watch Hawi in the days before the murder and was later seized by police.
There is no suggestion Salami suspected Nazlioglu had murdered Hawi at the time he moved the silver Toyota or lent him the black Toyota Prado.
Judge O’Rourke said Salami also transferred the registration of Nazlioglu’s Mercedes into his friend’s name on February 17 and then to a fictional person’s name on April 27.
She said shortly after finding out the silver Toyota was seized by police on March 16, Salami believed Nazlioglu had murdered Hawi.
“The changes to the registration of the vehicle set out above would have made that vehicle and Nazlioglu less visible to police and information in relation to the changes of registration might have been of material assistance in securing apprehension,” Judge O’Rourke said.
Judge O’Rourke read out an intercepted phone call between Salami and his wife from August 3, 2018, in which Salami said: “It’s a Prado, you know who was driving it?”
Salami’s wife responded: “yeah” and Salami said: “The f***ing dumb c**t driving my car, f***ing doing that.”
Salami’s wife said “they” know who was driving the car and asked: “what’s it got to do with us?”
In response, Salami said: “they want me to talk, but I only found out after”. It is not suggested that his wife has engaged in any wrongdoing.
Salami pleaded guilty to a single count of concealing a serious indictable offence of another person and was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order.
Nazlioglu was charged with Hawi’s murder but acquitted by a jury after trial in the NSW Supreme Court in September 2020.
Nazlioglu himself was fatally shot in a Rhodes car park in June 2022.
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