Jay Malkoun moved to private clinic in Athens after car bomb

Former Comancheros boss Jay Malkoun has gone into hiding in a posh clinic in Athens where he is protected by police as he recovers from a car-bomb attack that almost cost him his life.

Australian bikie boss Amad “Jay’’ Malkoun has gone into hiding in a posh private clinic in Athens where he is protected by police and bodyguards as he recovers from a car-bomb attack that almost cost him his life.

The former president of the Victorian chapter of the Comancheros bikie gang has told police in his first formal interview after last Friday’s attack that he has no enemies in Greece and can’t understand why he would be targeted, a source said.

The 56-year-old was whisked away under police guard on Sunday from the Asklipeio General Hospital, where he had three rounds of surgery for severe injuries to his legs and arms.

News Corp Australia can reveal he was taken to an upscale private hospital in the city where he has lived for the past two years.

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The private hospital in Athens where Jay Malkoun has been transferred.

There were two police posted outside his top-floor “executive ward” and two burly English-speaking men believed to be his bodyguards sat inside the room with him.

His estranged wife Samantha Pyke, who flew this weekend from Perth to be at his side, and three young children were believed to be staying at a nearby hotel.

His three-storey maisonette, overlooking a golf course in the up-market seaside area of Glyfada, dubbed the Athens Riviera, appeared empty on Monday with no sign of his family or any other visitors.

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Former bikie boss Jay Malkoun on his wedding day. Picture: Photorazzi.com.au

He lived there with the three children and his only routine appeared to be taking the kids to school or to catch the school bus and then heading for the Mega Gym fitness centre every morning to work out, neighbours said.

It was outside the gym that his white Mercedes AMG blew up when he got into it after a workout on Friday at around 10am local time.

Malkoun, who served more than a decade in jail for ­heroin trafficking, left Melbourne in a hurry in 2013 for Dubai and later moved to Greece.

The former Victorian president of the Comancheros bikie gang was seriously injured when his car exploded.

On Sunday, speaking from his bed in the private hospital, he made his first formal statement about the Athens bomb attack that came just four months after Sydney underworld figure John Macris was shot dead outside his Athens home a couple of kilometres from the Mega Gym.

“I cannot think of anyone here who might want to attack me,” he told investigators, according to a police source.

“I have a routine here, I live here, I have three kids, I take them to school, I go to the gym. That’s my routine,” he said.

Malkoun said he was not working in Greece. He had been working as a “consultant” for a European businessman in Dubai and when his client moved to Athens he moved too, he said.

But the business relationship ended and now he no longer worked, explained the ex-bikie boss whose luxury home in Athens has views over the golf course to the sea just a short distance away.

Jay Malkoun with his estranged wife Samantha, who has flown to Athens to be by his side.

Greek police are looking into whether the hit on Malkoun was ordered from Australia.

He said his Mercedes blew up the moment he turned the key in the ignition. But police say the bomb may have been detonated remotely.

They said it would take a month before their examination of the remains of the car would let them know for certain how the device was set off.

Police said they also planned to interview Ms Pyke.

“I thought he was dead for a good four hours because I don’t know how anyone could survive that,” she told a reporter in Perth on Monday.

The apartment block where Jay Malkoun lives in a penthouse, overlooking the Glyfada golf course. Picture: Daphne Tolis

Investigators also said that it was not his bodyguards who pulled him out of the burning car but two passers-by.

He was struggling to get out of the car on his own but couldn’t and was dragged out of the vehicle by two men who were nearby.

Malkoun had no apparent history with Macris, a Greek-Australian, back in Australia, yet he ended up living in the same district of Athens, worked out in the same gym, and dined in the same fish restaurant.

Police have made no arrests in either case.

Originally published as Jay Malkoun moved to private clinic in Athens after car bomb