Ali Chaouk walks dark path of violence to murder rap
When a 10-year-old Ali Chaouk watched his father shoot a man, he was set on a path of violence that would end with most of his family killed or imprisoned. Chaouk now has all the time in the world to ponder the destruction of his clan as he rots in jail.
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They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
And, after a 10-year-old Ali Chaouk saw his father shoot a man, he was never much chance of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Justice Bell in the Supreme Court last month aptly described the Chaouk family history as being one marked by “intergenerational violence”.
Ali was one of six children born to parents who came from Lebanon 40 years ago during the wave of migration from that country.
His grandfather was killed in conflict between villages back in the home country, the Supreme Court heard.
Ali would have been still in primary school when he witnessed his father Macchour shoot an enemy.
Perhaps understandably after such a formative experience, the boy later drifted into crime, becoming a key distributor of drugs in the western suburbs.
If his ruthlessness was not enough, his family could call on the backing of the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle club.
Ali was, at one stage a HA’s prospect, which is like being an apprentice bikie, doing some dirty work and earning a spot in the team.
That alliance spectacularly disintegrated last year with a brutal jailhouse beating of Chaouk family members which was reportedly sanctioned by the powerful bikie gang.
The Chaouks had been under heavy law enforcement scrutiny for years but held little notoriety in the general community, until 2005.
It was in that year that Ali’s brother Mohamed was shot dead in a raid by special operations group officers on the family’s Brooklyn property.
Subsequent threats against Victoria Police suspected of being linked to the incident forced a major upgrade of security at the old St Kilda Rd crime squads building.
In 2009, Ali Chaouk was released from prison for a year of freedom marked by two horrific crimes.
On June 20, he arranged to meet Mohammed Haddara “one-on-one” over a dispute which had been sparked by the use of a car for a wedding.
Chaouk arrived at an Altona North park at 7.30pm to find his foe already in place, unarmed and alone.
Haddara was shot five times, twice to the head and three times to the back.
One of the five was fired as the father-of-two lay on the road.
The whole thing looked like being easily wrapped up when Chaouk family associate Ahmed Hablas quickly owned up to the shooting, telling investigators it was a case of self-defence.
But he was lying.
Three months later, Chaouk’s appetite for violence would again cost him dearly.
While at the Hells Angels-linked Dallas Showgirls strip club in the CBD, Chaouk came into contact with a 19-year-old tourist who claimed to be from the international gang’s German arm.
It soon became apparent the teenager was lying but — instead of dishing out a beating — Chaouk and others imprudently took the increasingly reluctant young imposter back to the Angels’ Thomastown clubhouse.
He was shown pictures of German gang members and, after being unable to recognise them, the brutality started.
One member attacked the tourist with a baseball bat before Chaouk had his turn at the plate, pounding the terrified young man.
Chaouk shoved a pole in his mouth, damaging his teeth, then kicked him in the groin and chest.
The victim was later dumped in the suburbs before being taken to hospital for treatment of severe head injuries.
Unfortunately for his assailants, Chaouk’s phone was being intercepted by police at the time and some of the onslaught was recorded by investigators.
“Oh my God, what’s happening?”, the teenager was heard saying.
A man at the scene said: “Lying c...’” against a backdrop of screams.
Meanwhile, police were trying to sort out the Mohammed Haddara killing, a task complicated by the Hablas confession.
There were suspicions he had not pulled the trigger, which proved right as he retracted that confession.
Hablas said he had taken the rap because he was terrified of Ali Chaouk.
“He played chicken with the cops and swerved first. He just couldn’t go through with it,” one police source said.
Chaouk was eventually charged but not before a period of extreme tension in the Altona North area.
Haddaras and Chaouks threatened and ran surveillance on one another as the execution ushered in years of extreme friction.
In the period after Mohammed’s death, the McDonald’s restaurant on Millers Rd, Altona North, was sprayed with machine gun fire.
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Those responsible are believed to have been aware a Chaouk ally was inside the business.
In 2010, Macchour Chaouk was shot dead in the backyard of the family’s Geelong Rd property.
The number one theory is that he died in revenge for the death of Mohammed Haddara.
It took police 10 years to bring Ali Chaouk to justice for Mohammed’s death, closing one important chapter for homicide investigators.
The man who has spent 14 of the last 15 years in jail will now spend a minimum 18 more behind bars.
But there is another loose end remaining for the police — the death of Macchour.
Haddara family patriarch, the late Ahmad, was questioned by homicide investigators over that crime, and with good reason.
Macchour had named him as the killer with his dying breaths.
The home of Ahmad, Mohammed’s father, was searched by police and his clothes examined for gunshot residue.
Ahmad, who suspected the Chaouks were behind his son’s murder, told investigators he had been at home all day.
But there have always been lingering suspicions others known to Ahmad pulled off the hit.
A $100,000 reward is in place for anyone who can help convict those responsible.
“The investigation into the fatal shooting of Macchour Chaouk at his Brooklyn property on 13 August, 2010 remains open,” Victoria Police said.
Anyone with information can contact crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit the website www.crimestoppers.com.au.
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