Former bikie Sam Abdulrahim tells court of moment he was gunned down in kill plot

Former bikie Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim says police tried to convince him to give up the names of the masked men who shot him eight times.

Sam Abdulrahim is suing the state government. Picture: Jason Edwards

Ex-bikie Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim has described how cops told him he was going to die as he lay riddled with eight bullets in a hospital bed.

The shooting victim told a court how police tried to convince him to give up the name of his attempted murderer after a failed execution at his cousin’s funeral at Fawkner cemetery, in June 2022.

“You’re not going to make it, just tell us who did it,” Abdulrahim said police told him.

“Really good to keep my hopes up.”

Abdulrahim riddled with bullets in hospital. Picture: Supplied

The 31-year-old said officers at his bedside told him there were “too many holes” for him to survive, and to give them the identities of the masked men who shot him eight times during the funeral procession.

But the professional boxer – who returned to the ring this month – never named names and survived despite a bullet remaining lodged in his right kidney.

Abdulrahim’s account of the day he was nearly killed came during evidence in a Supreme Court civil trial on Monday, where he’s suing the state government over 73 days spent “unlawfully” behind bars when his parole was revoked in 2019.

The ex-Mongol had completed a two-year sentence over a fatal high-speed crash in 2015, where a great-grandmother was killed when his Ferrari 360 Spider smashed into cars in a Reservoir street.

Professional boxer Abdulrahim returned to the ring this month.

Abdulrahim said he had been driving fast when he hit the kerb then hit his head on the roll cage, crashing to a halt, and later learned that 88-year-old Muriel Hulett had died.

After serving his sentence, he said he was shopping at Woolworths with his ex-partner when plain-clothed “fugitive” police descended on him, in June 2019.

The Adult Parole Board had backflipped on its decision to grant Abdulrahim release because of a perceived risk to the community after a series of shootings that police believed he was the intended victim of.

Abdulrahim claims the move actually put him in danger after he was allegedly assaulted in jail in July 2019.

He told the court he was walking with two officers when “two people came up to shake my hand”.

Instead, he was smashed in the back of the head with a rock.

A Supreme Court judge later overturned the Parole Board’s decision, releasing Abdulrahim who would two years later become a victim of an attempted murder at Fawkner cemetery.

Abdulrahim’s Mercedes after he was shot at in Fawkner. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Standing in the witness box wearing a grey coat, Abdulrahim described a call from his struggling cousin in June 2022 and of leaving his heavily-pregnant wife to rush to his aid.

But soon after, he learned his cousin had taken his own life.

Abdulrahim and his wife then welcomed their first child, a baby girl, who was just five days old when he was nearly shot dead at the funeral.

He said his life had been getting back on track, having left the Mongols and meeting his daughter when he almost died.

His lawyer, barrister Stella Gold, told the court it was for the state “to establish the lawfulness” of its decision to revoke his parole in 2019.

Barrister Liam Brown, for the state, replied: “We say his imprisonment was lawful, in short.”

The state contends that Abdulrahim’s extra 73 days in jail was “hardly the worst thing that’s ever happened” to him after he survived the Fawkner shooting, and a 2016 shooting where his friend, Kadir Ors, was murdered by crime boss George Marrogi.

Abdulrahim is seeking damages, with the civil trial continuing on Tuesday.