Ahmed Jaghbir guilty of accessory to murder Kemel Barakat
A tradie involved in a brutal Sydney murder blew a kiss to his crying wife and sisters in court today before he was taken into custody.
Police & Courts
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A tradie involved in a brutal Sydney murder blew a kiss to his crying wife and sisters in court today before he was taken into custody.
Ahmed Jaghbir, 31, was found guilty of being an accessory to murder in a judge-alone trial on October 13.
The court heard Jaghbir supplied his friend Kemel “Blackie” Barakat’s house key to his assassins so they could enter his Mortlake apartment block, where he was shot dead next to his girlfriend in March 2017.
Police did not have the documentation ready to file an application for Jaghbir to remain in custody at the trial, so his bail was continued after the trial.
Crown prosecutor Christopher Taylor applied in the Supreme Court on Wednesday for Jaghbir’s bail to be “urgently” revoked as he awaited sentencing in November.
Justice Geoffrey Bellew criticised the crown’s handling of the case, telling the court they had been “asleep at the wheel”.
The court was told senior police and crown prosecutors were aware Jaghbir’s father, who agreed to pay $800,000 if his son did not show up to court, died in February 2019.
But they did not do anything about it until 18 months later on October 14, when they blamed Jaghbir for a “breach of bail”, despite his lawyers informing police soon after the death.
“That email sent in October this year by the crown criticising the respondent solicitors for not rectifying matter … that in my view is an extraordinary position for the crown to have taken in circumstances where the crown knew about it almost 20 months before hand,” Justice Bellew said. “Somebody was asleep at the wheel.”
Jaghbir’s barrister Greg James QC told the court his client’s bail should be considered at his sentence on November 5.
Mr James said taking him into custody now could affect the preparation of sentencing and Jaghbir may be made to quarantine.
And his client had never breached bail.
But Mr Gallow said Jaghbir was guilty of a serious crime and should be jailed.
“I accept that circumstances have changed. The respondent is no longer a person that is presumed innocent,” he said.
Jaghbir will reappear for sentence on November 5.
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