The Snitch: Abuzar Sultani lieutenant charged with threatening crown prosecutor
One of the men standing trial over the murder of Mafiosi figure Pasquale Barbaro has been charged with threatening the Crown Prosecutor on his case. Don’t miss the Snitch.
Police & Courts
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The job of a prosecuting lawyer carries a few more dangers than most other professions.
The main risk being that the prime focus of their jobs is to put dangerous people in jail. And sometimes the criminals take it personally.
That is what prosecutors allege occurred during the triple gangland murder cases of a group of men who were led by bikie turned hitman-for-hire Abuzar Sultani.
One of Sultani’s alleged lieutenants, Mirwais Danishyar, has been charged with threatening the crown prosecutor working on his case.
According to court documents, Danishyar is accused of making the threat to the lawyer in court when he was standing trial for the murder of Mafioso figure Pasquale Barbaro.
The prosecutor allegedly heard Danishyar make threatening comments relating to him and his solicitor.
The two reported the matter and Danishyar was charged with two counts of threatening a justice official.
Police also took out an apprehended violence order to protect the prosecuting lawyer from Danishyar.
The charges and the AVO were mentioned in the Downing Centre this month and will return to court later this year.
Danishyar was a member of the group who stood trial over three murders.
These included the shooting murders of bikie Michael “Ruthless” Davey, drug dealer Mehmet Yilmaz and Barbaro.
WHY BALUCH IS NOT PART OF THE AN0M COURT CHALLENGE
We were surprised to see that accused drug-smuggler Mostafa Baluch has not joined the legal battle against the police’s AN0M phone evidence.
That’s because it turns out he’s having some trouble being allowed to view the evidence against him and talk to his lawyer given he’s in the state’s most secure prison.
Your correspondent revealed last month that about 30 accused were mounting a legal challenge to the admissibility of the messages on the phones that were thought to be encrypted but were in fact part of a worldwide sting where police were reading the messages.
Baluch, who is accused of attempting to smuggle 900kg of cocaine into Australia, wasn’t among them.
We’re told he hasn’t joined the challenge because he is not fully across the extent to which AN0M calls figure in his case. This is apparently because his hosts at Goulburn’s Supermax prison – where he is being held on remand – were restricting his ability to view the evidence in his case and to be able to speak to his lawyer about it.
Baluch ended up in Supermax after he was released on bail only to allegedly cut off his ankle bracelet and go on the run. He was arrested in the back of a truck near the NSW and Queensland border last November.
BRET WALKER S-BEE
WHEN Australia’s most revered barrister Bret Walker SC is not engaging with mind-bending legal equations, he has a unique relaxation activity.
Turns out it’s bees.
Yep. We’re told that Mr Walker is an avid beekeeper.
BAD LUCK BOYS
There is a storied history of accused criminals punting up tall tales in court in their attempts to be granted bail.
And Snitch correspondent Anton Rose tells us the yarn spun by the two men (who we can’t legally identify) in a court this week was one of the better ones.
The men, currently on remand on serious drugs charges, this week told the judge hearing their case they had no idea several kilograms of a particular drug was hidden in their vehicle when they were pulled over by police earlier this year.
In their words to the court, it turns out the men were victims of the most unfortunate of coincidences.
They had borrowed the vehicle from “a friend” and had no idea the drugs were in a secret compartment inside the vehicle, or to whom the drugs belonged.
The men told the judge they had borrowed the vehicle for a trip but had barely made it out of Sydney before police pulled them over. So what did the judge think of this seemingly unfortunate predicament?
He gave it a big “nope”. Bail refused.
Got a snitch? Contact brenden.hills@news.com.au