No bail for man accused of murdering Sydney underworld’s Brownie Ahmad

Pierre Abou-Sleiman has made no application for bail in court on Thursday after being charged with the murder of Sydney underworld figure “Brownie” Ahmad.

A 26-year-old man will likely spend the rest of the year held on remand accused of the murder of Sydney underworld figure Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad, with his lawyers saying he was not trying to evade justice.

NSW Police Strike Force Erebus — which was established to investigate a series of alleged gangland murders across Sydney in the past 18 months — arrested Pierre Abou-Sleiman on Wednesday afternoon.

He did not leave the cells beneath Bankstown Local Court on Thursday when his lawyer, Ben Archbold, told the court he would not apply for bail on charges of murder and particpating in a criminal group.

Abou-Sleiman will likely spend the Christmas and New Year period in custody, on remand, until his next mention in January.

Ahmad was fatally shot while outside an associate’s home in Greenacre on April 27 this year.

The 39-year-old was well known within Sydney’s crime networks and in the lead up to his death had been warned by police multiple times that his life was in danger.

Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad.

The scene of Ahmad’s shooting in April.

In fact, some were believed to have been offering a million-dollar contract on his head in the months before he was shot.

Two other men were previously arrested over their alleged involvement in Ahmad’s murder and charged with lesser offences including accessory after the fact and participating in a criminal group.

Pierre Abou-Sleiman was arrested over the murder of Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad this week.

The Daily Telegraph understands the accusations against Abou-Sleiman mirror those made against at least one of his co-accused and are around the alleged use and concealment of a car.

Those accusations include that detectives, in May this year, found a car parked in a unit complex under a car cover and with no licence plates.

Police placed the car under surveillance and swooped when some men allegedly attached false plates to it.

Abou-Sleiman was not arrested at that time but phones were siezed by police during the arrest and it is understood he was taken into custody this week when he returned from overseas.

His solicitors said he was not in hiding.

A gunman fired multiple shots at Ahmad outside a home on Narelle Cres.

“At the end of the day he went on a holiday and he came back,” Abou-Sleiman’s solicitor, Mr Archbold, told reporters.

“He came home on his own free will.”

Who is Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad?

Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad was a well known underworld crime figure who not averse to using his feared reputation and also threats to target rich people and extort them of their cash.

He had only recently walked free from prison after spending five years behind bars for the manslaughter of fellow underworld figure Safwan Charbazi at a Condell Park scrap yard in 2016.

Charbazi’s death kicked off a series of other murders, including that of Ahmad’s brother, Wally, who was fatally shot in broad daylight at Bankstown shopping centre.

“Everyone knows, including Brownie, that there is a price on his head,” an underworld source had said of the gangster before his death. “He knows it and he won’t back down or hide.”

Police image of Mahmoud Brownie Ahmad.

The heavily-tattooed Ahmad poses.

It was common knowledge among Sydney gangsters that there was a longstanding feud between the Ahmad and Alameddine families, but things had died down while he was serving time.

Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty previously confirmed police had warned Ahmad multiple times that his life was in danger following his death.

“Even up until last week police were executing firearm prohibition orders on associates, warning them that by being associated with him they’re in danger,” he said.

“He’d (also) been warned in the past that he was a marked man but … he didn’t heed those warnings.

“(This is) the consequences of him continuing on in the Bankstown area of going about his normal business as if he hadn’t care in the world, but he was in imminent danger and it was warning that had been given to him.”

Another of his brothers, Ahmad “Rock” Ahmad, is serving a minimum eight-year jail sentence over a drug importation plot.

In that case, a court heard an undercover cop called Zane won the trust of high ranking members in a syndicate, including crime figure Michael Ibrahim, and said he could help get drugs into Australia undetected.