Ahmed Jaghbir found guilty of assisting in Kemel “Blackie” Barakat murder
Ahmed Jaghbir was found guilty of passing on an apartment key to the killers of his former friend, who was gunned down in his bed in 2017.
Police & Courts
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A tradesman who handed a key to the assassins of Sydney gangster Kemel “Blackie” Barakat before he was gunned down in his bed has been found guilty of assisting the brutal killing.
Ahmed “AJ” Jaghbir, 31, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday after pleading not guilty to being an accessory before the fact to his former friend’s murder during a judge-alone trial.
Jaghbir was accused of supplying the key to Barakat’s assassins so they could enter Unit 6 in his Mortlake apartment block where he was fatally shot in bed next to a woman in the middle of the night in March 2017.
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During the trial prosecutors alleged Jaghbir had helped to replace a door for Barakat, 29, after his unit was raided by police before he secretly passed on a copy of the keys to his killers.
The court was told at the time Barakat was concerned about security in his house and that he had been shot at in public before police knocked down his door.
Justice David Davies said four armed assailants later stormed Barakat’s apartment complex as a woman sleeping next to him called Fatima Hage was woken before he pushed her away and he was gunned down.
Barakat said he was “sorry” and Ms Hage said an Arabic prayer over him before he choked and died, the court heard.
“It is difficult to imagine the horror of what she experienced that night,” Justice Davies said.
“She thought she was about to be killed too, her distress was evident.”
The court was told there was multiple possible motives Jaghbir had in becoming involved in the plot, including being offered payment which would assist in his upcoming wedding and a dispute over money with Barakat’s crew.
Jaghbir’s defence barristers had argued their client did not have a motive to murder his friend.
But Justice Davies ruled Jaghbir assisted the killers.
“I‘m satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused provided assistance to the assailants by supplying a key or duplicate key to enable (them to enter the unit and) to kill the deceased by shooting him,” he said.
“I find beyond reasonable doubt the assailants entered the unit by unlocking the front door with a key they had in their possession.
“I do not accept the deceased would have duplicated the key.”
Justice Davies will sentence Jaghbir, who remains on bail, at a later date.
Outside court, Bakarat’s father said the guilty verdict was a “great decision“.
“(It’s) a bit of justice for my son,” he said.