Idrees Kheyali charged with murdering gangland boss Mohammed ‘Afghan Ali’ Keshtiar
A one-time rising boxer is the man police charged with murdering gangland boss Mohammed “Afghan Ali” Keshtiar in an ambush near his South Yarra apartment.
Police & Courts
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A former accomplished teenage boxer is the man charged with the murder of feared gangland boss Mohammed “Afghan Ali” Keshtiar.
Officers from the special operations group last Friday arrested Idrees Kheyali at Dandenong in a major breakthrough for homicide squad investigators probing the organised crime figure’s slaying.
Keshtiar was fatally wounded and a mate who he was walking with escaped uninjured when the shooter struck.
The 23-year-old Mr Kheyali, who has been charged with murder and conduct endangering life, was remanded in custody at a Melbourne Magistrates’ Court hearing on Friday night.
Mr Kheyali was a handy teenage boxer who had a bout interstate and had dreams of making a career in the fight game.
He had previously trained at the Fighters Express gym in Dandenong.
Mr Kheyali has enjoyed some overseas travel in recent times.
He was last year pictured with friends in the Middle-eastern desert city of Dubai.
The Herald Sun has been told he has more recently spent some time in Afghanistan.
Keshtiar was shot dead in a street ambush near his apartment in South Yarra on August 4, 2023.
He was one of the most formidable figures in Melbourne’s Middle-Eastern organised crime scene and had long held strong links to bikie gangs.
The 53-year-old survived an earlier hit when a bungling gunman shot dead Zabi Ezedyar at Narre Warren in what investigators suspect was an attempt on Keshtiar’s life.
The investigation into his murder has been described by police as “on going”.
They last year posted a $1 million reward for anyone able to help solve the case.
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