‘You think I put it on Mick’: Hawi’s alleged killer said, court told
A Sydney man who allegedly murdered bikie Mahmoud ‘Mick’ Hawi told his lover “I’ve got nothing to say” to police who he claimed accused him of “bull****”, a court heard.
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A Sydney man accused of assassinating Mahmoud Hawi allegedly said, “I put it on Mick — cop it,” before swearing as he drove past the bikie’s murder location, a court heard
But Yusuf Nazlioglu claims he actually said “you think I put it on Mick – coppers (are) f***ed,” in a muffled conversation recorded by police months after the February 2018 shooting.
Nazlioglu had been driving near Rockdale Fitness First, where the ex-Comanchero chief had been gunned down four months prior, a court heard.
Earlier in June 2018, Nazlioglu told his lover “I’ve got nothing to say” to police who were investigating Hawi’s brazen daylight execution, his NSW Supreme Court murder trial heard.
“To accuse me of that f***ing s***… they went past me (sic) mum’s house and they left a letter. They wanted to talk to me in regards to that bull****,” Nazlioglu said in a tapped phone call.
“I’m like, why did they wanna talk to me about that s*** for?”
“Why don’t you call them?” asked the woman he was having an affair with.
“Because I’ve got nothing to say to them, you know what I mean?” Nazlioglu replied.
“They are looking to arrest you but they can’t find you,” the woman said.
“Come on, baby girl,” he said.
The 38-year-old Monterey man is accused of shooting Hawi multiple times as he sat in his car, while panel beater Jamal Eljaidi was the alleged getaway driver for the hit, which was carried out on February 15, 2018.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to murder and their lawyers have not called any evidence in the defence case, with closing submissions due to begin on Monday.
For the six months up to Nazlioglu’s August 2018 arrest, a team of more than a dozen officers intercepted his calls, while also bugging his cars and the luxury Circular Quay apartment he began renting one week before the murder.
While visiting the Macquarie Street unit on May 12, the sergeant-at-arms of the Comanchero Sydney chapter jokingly accused Nazlioglu of wearing “Commo colours.”
“You’re wearing gold and f***ing black,” Tarek Zahed laughingly said.
“Yeah? What’s wrong with that brother?... f***ing c***,” Nazlioglu replied.
The court heard Nazlioglu has never been a patched member of the Comanchero.
Detectives also planted a listening device in a prisoner’s jail cell, and later in May they recorded a call between Nazlioglu and Mohammed Doudar, an inmate at John Morony Correctional Complex near Windsor.
Earlier in March 2018 police raided the Bexley home where Doudar and his family lived, and where Nazlioglu and Eljaidi allegedly stored two getaway cars used in Hawi’s assassination.
Earlier, Detective Senior Constable Kane Reinhart told the jury that Hawi had allegedly been extorting property developers Eddie Haragli and Khoda Kassira for half a million dollars, with Mr Haragli claiming he’d already paid the bikie $200,000 by the time he was shot.
The court heard Hawi’s widow Carolina Gonzalez told police Mr Haragli had approached her husband for protection and he “arranged his boys to help Eddie.”
Mr Haragli and Mr Kassira have not been charged with any wrongdoing.
The trial continues.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 28
A man accused of killing bikie Mahmoud ‘Mick’ Hawi repeatedly drove to the same Sydney suburb of an alleged safe house used in the underworld killing to see his lover, a court heard.
Monterey man Yusuf Nazlioglu is accused of shooting the ex-Comanchero chief while panel beater Jamal Eljaidi was the alleged getaway driver for the hit, which was carried out in broad daylight outside a Rockdale gym on February 15, 2018.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to murder in the NSW Supreme Court, and the Crown case is expected to finish on Friday.
The court has heard police conducting surveillance on Nazlioglu referred to his secret rendezvous with a married woman as “sexy shenanigans”, and his lawyer said the 38-year-old regularly drove laps near her Bexley house in 2018.
Officers planted tracking devices in his cars and monitored him for months, with a detective once commenting that Nazlioglu was “doing his usual rat run around Bexley”, barrister Avni Djemal told the court.
The Crown alleges Nazlioglu and Eljaidi had a safe house in Bexley where they stored two getaway cars used in the assassination.
But Mr Djemal argued phone records proved Nazlioglu was constantly calling his lover and asking why she wasn’t at home, before driving more loops around the area and looking for the woman at her sister’s home.
Detective Senior Constable Kane Reinhart acknowledged that Nazlioglu and the woman made arrangements to have sex in the car while her husband was at work.
But the second-in-charge of Hawi’s murder investigation insisted an affair wasn’t the only reason Nazlioglu constantly drove around the south Sydney suburb close to where the bikie was executed.
“It was suggested to me yesterday that it was purely because there was a relationship between the two, which I disagree with,” he said on Thursday.
Immediately after Nazlioglu allegedly shot Hawi in the head at close range outside Rockdale Fitness First, Eljaidi is accused of driving him in a Silver Mercedes-Benz to nearby Chandler Street, where they set the car on fire and jumped into a Silver Toyota Aurion.
The Crown alleges that two days before the shooting, the first getaway car was parked at the Bexley safe house, and the jury was shown security footage of a vehicle similar in shape to the Mercedes driven into the garage.
CCTV footage from the afternoon of February 14 showed a tow truck carrying a grey Toyota Aurion near the Highworth Ave home, where the second alleged getaway car was also delivered.
Two days after the shooting, an Aurion was loaded back onto the tow truck from the Highworth Ave home on CCTV footage played to the jury.
The court heard DNA linked to Eljaidi was found on a Woolworths reusable bag inside a garage at the alleged safe house.
Police seized the Aurion one month after the murder in March 2018, and the Crown alleges DNA linked to both men was found inside the car, while gunshot residue was found on a balaclava stashed inside which also allegedly contained Nazlioglu’s DNA.
On Thursday the court heard Beau Redmond, the son of Sydney hotelier Geoff Redmond, had been trained to use explosives and firearms at an army reserve barracks on Chandler Street.
Redmond had initially been a person of interest in the murder investigation, but was eventually ruled out.
The trial continues.
ALLEGED GUNMAN IN LOVE TRIANGLE
The man who allegedly killed Sydney bikie Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi was locked in a love triangle involving a married woman, his trial has heard.
Monterey man Yusuf Nazlioglu is accused of shooting the Comanchero chief while panel beater Jamal Eljaidi was the alleged getaway driver for the hit, but both men have pleaded not guilty to murder.
Nazlioglu’s lawyer suggested to their NSW Supreme Court trial that police conducting surveillance on the 38-year-old for months after Hawi’s February 2018 death referred to his regular trysts as “sexy shenanigans”.
Barrister Avni Djemal told the court that the woman would make excuses to leave her home with her baby for “secret rendezvous” with his client, while her husband Eddie was at work.
“They would meet at Kogarah Private Hospital carpark and have sex in the car,” he said.
“I know they made arrangements to have sex in the car,” Detective Senior Constable Kane Reinhart said.
The officer, who is second-in-charge of Hawi’s murder investigation, said a team of more than 14 detectives used physical surveillance, listening devices and telephone intercepts to track Nazlioglu’s movements between March 2018 and his arrest in August.
The court heard in one tapped telephone conversation, Nazlioglu’s alleged lover asked permission from his friend to go public about their affair, declaring: “I’ve been in love with Yusuf … since 2016.”
The woman wanted to leave her husband “who she didn’t love anymore”, and take their youngest child with her, Mr Djemal told the court.
But Snr Const Reinhart said Nazlioglu and the woman both wanted the blessing of the man, who cannot be named.
“She says she’s already told her husband and he doesn’t seem to want to let her go … she can’t escape that relationship it would seem, correct?” Mr Djemal asked.
“Yes but … she’s trying to justify it to (Nazlioglu’s friend) because Yusuf wants (his friend’s) permission to be able to see (the woman),” Snr Const Reinhart said.
Earlier, the jury was told Beau Redmond, the son of Sydney hotelier Geoff Redmond, had initially been a person of interest in the execution, which was carried out in broad daylight outside Rockdale Fitness First on February 15, 2018.
But Redmond was eventually ruled out of the investigation.
Snr Const Reinhart said when he asked Hawi’s widow Carolina Gonzalez who might have wanted to hurt him, she mentioned two people in the construction industry.
The court has previously heard Eddie Haragli had promised cash after Hawi “fixed a dispute,” and Ms Gonzalez admitted she went to the wealthy developer’s home after the shooting and threatened to kill him.
Haragli has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Snr Const Reinhart also confirmed that brothers Henry and Peter Vaiusu, who in June 2018 were charged over a massive stash of guns, drugs and $2.75 million worth of cash found in a south Sydney storage shed, were never suspects.
The trial continues.
VIDEO OF HAWI SHOOTING SHOWN TO JURY
Video footage of the moment a masked man sprayed former bikie boss Mick Hawi with bullets has been played to a NSW jury.
Monterey man Yusuf Nazlioglu, 38, is accused of killing the ex-Comanchero chief with a volley of gunshots through the window of Hawi’s Mercedes 4WD two-and-a-half years ago.
The Crown alleges Jamal Eljaidi was the getaway driver for the infamous hit, which was carried out in broad daylight outside a Rockdale gym on February 15, 2018.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to murder, and on Wednesday security camera footage capturing Hawi’s execution was played at their Supreme Court trial.
The Crown alleges that shortly after Hawi arrived at Rockdale Fitness First for his daily workout, CCTV footage captured a grey stolen Mercedes reverse out of a Bexley safe house with Nazlioglu and Eljaidi inside.
The jury watched CCTV vision from 12.06pm that day showing Hawi — wearing white shoes, grey tracksuit pants and a grey T-shirt — leaving the gym’s lobby before getting into his black Mercedes parked directly outside.
Seconds later, a person dressed in black is seen on security footage running towards Hawi’s car from a grey Mercedes up the street, before standing beside it with one arm outstretched.
The Crown alleges it was Nazlioglu shooting Hawi multiple times in the head, face and shoulder as he sat in his car.
Fitness First cameras then captured the alleged assailant “running from left to right” away from Hawi’s car, Detective Senior Constable Kane Reinhart said.
Footage from another gym camera had just shown “fragments of glass going through the foyer,” the officer said.
The Crown alleges Eljaidi drove Nazlioglu in the grey Mercedes to a nearby street straight after the gruesome underworld killing, where they allegedly set fire to the car that had been stolen at knifepoint nine months earlier.
Police arriving at Chandler St discovered the burning car had a fake licence plate sticker affixed to stolen plates, agreed facts state.
By that time Eljaidi and Nazlioglu had allegedly already jumped into a second getaway car — a Silver Toyota Aurion.
CCTV footage of two men dressed in black running north up Chandler S before turning a corner about 12.08pm was played to the jury.
It took more than six months for police to painstakingly compile hundreds of hours of CCTV footage from cameras across the city to be used in the circumstantial case against Nazlioglu and Eljaidi.
The court heard that one week before the killing, Nazlioglu and another man checked into a luxury apartment opposite the Opera House, before moving into another unit in the same building that had spectacular views of the Harbour Bridge in Circular Quay.
The court heard Nazlioglu was still renting the multimillion-dollar apartment days after Hawi was shot repeatedly at close range, with CCTV showing a man alleged to be him in the lobby multiple times.
A blue Toyota Aurion was also spotted coming and going from the underground carpark near the Macquarie St apartment several times before and after Hawi’s killing on security footage played to the jury.
The Crown alleges that two days before the shooting, the first getaway car was parked at a Bexley home which was used as a safe house, and the jury was shown security footage of a vehicle similar in shape to the Mercedes driven into the garage.
CCTV footage from the afternoon of February 14 showed a tow truck carrying a grey Toyota Aurion near the Highworth Ave home, where the second alleged getaway car was delivered.
Two days after the shooting, Nazlioglu and others allegedly loaded the Aurion back onto the tow truck from the Highworth Ave safe house.
The jury heard DNA linked to Eljaidi was found on a Woolworths reusable bag inside a garage at the alleged Bexley home.
Police seized the Aurion one month after the murder in March 2018, and the Crown alleges DNA linked to both men was found inside the car, while gunshot residue was found on a balaclava stashed inside which also allegedly contained Nazlioglu’s DNA.
The trial continues.