Australian ex-bikie boss ‘blown up’ in Mercedes in Athens
Australian bikie boss Jay Malkoun may have been rescued by a bodyguard, who pulled him away from his burning Mercedes after a car bomb detonated in Greece.
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Australian bikie boss Jay Malkoun may have been rescued by a bodyguard, who dragged him to safety after his Mercedes was blown up in a car bomb in Greece.
Malkoun, 56, was last night recovering at the Asklipieio General Hospital, where he underwent surgery for severe injuries to his feet and legs.
He narrowly escaped death when an improvised explosive device was used to blow up his car, parked outside the same gym used by former Sydney gangster John Macris, 46, who was murdered four months ago.
While there are reports a bystander rescued Malkoun, other witnesses told News Corp a man believed to be Malkoun’s bodyguard had saved his life by dragging him from the burning car on the side of the road in the southern Athens suburb of Glyfada.
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Michael Rivas, 66, was working across the highway at a motorbike service garage when the bomb went off about 10am Friday Greece time.
He heard an “excruciating noise that shook everything at my garage.’’
“The windows next door broke. Then I saw billows of smoke and a big man rushing to the car and taking out the driver from the co-passenger seat,’’ he told News Corp.
“He carried him to the middle of the street, away from the car. A minute or two later, there were subsequent, lower explosions and the car was on fire.
“This man must have been his bodyguard. No-one would go near this car otherwise.
“There were on-going explosions. Who would go rescue someone in the midst of explosions?”
A man thought to be the person who rescued Malkoun was at the hospital with him on Friday night and Saturday morning.
On Friday night he told News Corp – in English – that he was waiting for his wife and had “no idea who this (Malkoun) is.’’
On Saturday morning, he was spotted on Malkoun’s ward. He declined to make any comment.
Two Greek police officers were posted outside the doors of the orthopaedic ward where Malkoun was recovering.
A mangled bumper, a charred radio, and the half-melted remains of the spare wheel were among the few bits of the car left on Saturday morning at the site of the explosion.
The carcass of the white Mercedes that blew up with Malkoun inside had been towed away along with two cars parked next to it which had caught fire and been burnt out.
The shell of a fourth burnt-out car, a Seat Leon hatchback, remained at the site on the side of the busy dual carriage way that leads to downtown Athens.
Police said it was too early to determine any connection between the attack on Malkoun, a convicted drug trafficker and former president of the Victorian chapter of the Comancheros motorcycle gang, and John Macris, a former Sydney gangster.
Both men attended the same Mega Gym on Vouliagmenis Avenue in Glyfada. Malkoun was leaving the gym after a workout when his car was blown up.
Macris was leaving his home in neighbouring Voula to attend an office opening party on the same street when he was shot five times on October 31.
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The hits on two Australian criminal identities just 1.5km and four months apart have rattled authorities in Greece, who have been unable to solve Macris’ murder, which happened at 8pm as Macris left the home he shares with his model and reality TV star wife Viktoria Karida.
The Athens police chief spokesman told News Corp that Malkoun’s injuries were not life-threatening, and initial investigations pointed to an improved explosive device being used.
He said it was too early to say if there was any connection to the Macris murder.
“The target man was born in 1963. He has an Australian passport, also his car has Australian plates,’’ the spokesman told News Corp.
“He has also an Arab origin (from Lebanon).
“His life is not in danger. He has some injuries in his legs and hands.
“The first elements (of the investigation) shows a use of an IED.
“It is too early to connect this incident with another case, as you understand it’s an on-going investigation.
“Moreover, he has two years (living) in our country.’’
Malkoun, an Australian-Lebanese convicted heroin trafficker sentenced to 16 years’ jail for his involvement in a drug syndicate in the 1980s, was the president of the Victorian chapter of the Comancheros bikie gang from 2009 until 2013.
He disappeared suddenly to Thailand in 2013, but left Thailand in 2015 after the abduction and murder of former NSW Hells Angel member and drug trafficker Wayne Rodney Schneider. There is no suggestion Malkoun was involved in any wrongdoing. He then went to Dubai with his family.
He is thought to have lived in Greece since about 2017, and has a house in Glyfada.
Malkoun is thought to have a wife and three children, but there was no sign of them at the hospital.
Doctors said it was a miracle Malkoun survived the blast and the fire it unleashed, Proto Thema news site said.
Petros, who works on the reception desk at the Mega Gym, confirmed Malkoun was the man caught in the blast.
Shown a photograph and asked “is this Amad Jay Malkoun,’’ Petros replied: “he used the name Jay.’’
“The driver was removed from the car by another citizen who was passing by on a motorbike,’’ Petros said.
“I saw his right leg was injured. Under the knee. And he had some burns all over him. His clothes were torn, destroyed. But he was conscious when they took him out.’’
The explosion started a fire which ignited three other cars and closed busy Vouliagmenis Avenue to traffic. Video and photographs taken at the scene show plumes of black smoke billowing across the suburb, and dozens of police, firefighters, bomb disposal expert and paramedics racing to the scene.
Confronting photographs show Malkoun lying badly injured on the road as an ambulance arrives.
The Athens-Macedonian News Agency reported that the Mercedes had carried Australian licences plates and that the man driving it had a driver’s licence issued in the United Arab Emirates.
Another man who heard the explosion outside the gym ran to the scene, and saw the car on fire. Malkoun was by that stage lying on the road some distance from the car.
“It seems that he was “lucky”, because two men that happened to be close to there, ran towards him and took him out from his burning car from the co-driver’s door,’’ the man, who asked not to be named, told News Corp.
He said the man then “dragged him to Vouliagmenis Avenue far from the burning car.
“That is also where the police found him when they arrived, as well as the ambulance, approximately 10 minutes later,’’ he said.
“There are three to four cars that have been close to his car and are also burned out, but no other damage occurred to buildings or others.
“The man was seriously wounded to both his legs, and was not talking at all or saying anything.’’
The man said counter-terrorism police had been called to the scene, and had told people they found traces of dynamite.
Originally published as Australian ex-bikie boss ‘blown up’ in Mercedes in Athens
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