Mick Hawi murder: Yusuf Nazlioglu freed a year after being acquitted of gangster’s slaying

A jury found Yusuf Nazlioglu not guilty of the 2018 Rockdale execution of former bikie boss Mick Hawi, but an unrelated gun offence landed the 40-year-old in jail.

A Sydney bikie acquitted of gangland figure Mick Hawi’s murder has walked out of jail on parole three years after he was taken into custody over the killing.

Yusuf Nazlioglu, 40, was charged with murder in 2018 after Hawi — a former national president of the Comanchero — was gunned down in broad daylight outside a Rockdale gym.

A jury last year found Nazlioglu not guilty of that charge, but he had also been hit with an unrelated gun offence shortly after he was arrested over Hawi’s death.

CCTV footage of an unknown assailant gunning down Mick Hawi in his four-wheel-drive outside Rockdale’s Fitness First. Picture: Supplied

NSW District Court Judge Tanya Smith, SC, sentenced Nazlioglu to a minimum three years jail last July after he pleaded guilty to possessing a gun in contravention of a firearm prohibition.

The court heard police had found the gun near his car space while he was renting an apartment for $1350 a week at Circular Quay’s The Toaster building while unemployed.

With time already served, Nazlioglu first became eligible for parole on his 40th birthday last month.

Slain bikie boss Mick Hawi.

Yusuf Nazlioglu is escorted from Kogarah Police Station in August, 2018, after Hawi was shot. Picture: Gordon McComiskie

The State Parole Authority granted him parole and he left jail last week, authorities confirmed.

As part of his strict parole conditions, Nazlioglu must not take any prohibited drugs and he is also forbidden from talking to any bikies without prior approval.

He also must do counselling and psychotherapy if told to by his parole officer.

The parole order is in effect until August next year.

Raised in Sydney by his parents who had immigrated from Turkey, Nazlioglu had a hard time at school before he fell into drug use at 16, a court was told.

He served seven years jail between 2002 and 2009 over a charge of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

That charge related to a vicious and repeated stabbing attack against a man he did not know who was simply walking home with his wife and young child, a court heard

Nazlioglu later said he was on cocaine when he committed that offence.

When he was released from jail his father died shortly afterwards and he fell into drug use again.

He joined the Lone Wolf bikie club when he was 29.

In 2014 he opened a kebab shop, but the following year the shop was burnt down by a rival bikie club.

Originally published as Mick Hawi murder: Yusuf Nazlioglu freed a year after being acquitted of gangster’s slaying