Marwan Haddad: John Ibrahim relative ‘playing for time’ before being sentenced, court hears

The former brother-in-law of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim is ‘playing for time’ as he awaits sentencing on serious drug charges, a Sydney court has heard.

The former brother-in-law of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim is “playing for time” as he awaits being sentenced on serious drug charges, a court has been told.

Marwan Haddad, 46, of Ryde, appeared in Downing Centre District Court on Friday after being charged with a string of offences, including knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group and supplying prohibited drugs.

Haddad is the estranged brother-in-law of John, Sam, Michael and Fadi Ibrahim. He married their sister, Armani Stelio.

Marwan Haddad is Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim’s former brother-in-law.

His court date came only weeks after his son Michael, 21, was the victim of a botched $5 million kidnapping plot, where he was bashed before being rescued by police in Ryde.

Michael was violently kidnapped from an underground carpark and held for two days where he was tortured in a failed attempt to get Haddad to pay the ransom for his safe return.

The offenders threatened to cut off his fingers if the money wasn’t handed over, but dropped their original demand of $5 million to $2 million.

The Ibrahim brothers stopped speaking to the Haddads years ago.

There is no suggestion anyone within the Ibrahim family has anything to do with Haddad’s offending or the kidnapping.

The court was told Haddad, who is out on bail, had already spent two years behind bars on remand over the charges and prosecutors wanted a detention application to bring him back into custody because they would be seeking more jail time on sentence.

Armani Stelio. sister of John, Sam, Michael and Fadi Ibrahim.

Lawyers for Haddad said he recently had to undergo surgery and there was also a recent incident which had affected his family “substantially”.

The court heard the surgery meant he was unable to see a psychiatrist, who would prepare a report before he was sentenced.

But prosecutor Michael Gleeson said the surgery was to fix an injury from 2018 and that Haddad was “playing for time”.

“There isn’t really any real rational explanation as to why it’s taken so long for this surgery,” Mr Gleeson said.

“The Crown’s case is this offender is playing for time and he’s avoiding the inevitable.”

Judge Dina Yehia adjourned the matter for sentencing in February so the report could be prepared, and said it was up to prosecutors if they wanted to make a detention application next week.