Hitman Abuza Sultani suspected of shooting Khaled Abouhasna instead of Kaz Hamad

The country’s most dangerous gunman is the prime suspect in a plot intended to kill illicit tobacco king Kaz Hamad a decade ago, but got the wrong guy.

Exclusive: Australia’s deadliest hitman is the prime suspect in a plot intended to kill illicit tobacco king Kaz Hamad a decade ago, but got the wrong man.

Sydney gunman Abuza “Aza” Sultani – now jailed for life — has been identified as the likely shooter in the 2015 Melbourne murder of Khaled “KK” Abouhasna, who was slain in his car moments after pulling into his mother’s Altona Meadows driveway on April 19, 2015.

It has long been suspected a hitman fired upon the wrong man, shooting Mr Abouhasna while the target, Hamad, escaped.

A white van seen by witnesses in Lewin Court, where the ambush occurred, is suspected to be the same vehicle used by Sultani and his crew in subsequent hits.

Investigators believe the van was used months later to dump the body of Rebel bikie Mark Easter – another victim of Sultani’s – in bushland in Sydney’s north.

An identical van was later seized by NSW Police during their investigation into Sultani and other members of his crew over the 2016 murder of gangster Pasquale Barbaro.

Abuza Sultani after being arrested at an Olympic Park unit block in 2016, in relation to the murder of Pasquale Barbaro.

A gun suspected to have been used to shoot Mr Abouhasna was found inside the van.

“This van was a military base on wheels,” a senior police officer dubbed the van.

Victorian homicide squad detectives and others with knowledge of the probe into Mr Abouhasna’s murder have long believed the “targeted” hit was intended to kill Abouhasna’s brother-in-law, Hamad, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the silver Mercedes.

At the time, Hamad was an emerging underworld boss with outlaw bikie and illicit drug connections.

Kazem Hamad. Picture: Instagram

Khaled Abouhasna.

Hamad, who was deported from Australia to Iraq after he was released from a Victorian prison in 2023, has since become the nation’s “untouchable” illicit tobacco king, suspected of ordering firebombings across Melbourne to control the illegal market.

Victoria homicide detectives have known since 2020 of the link between the Sydney hit crew and Mr Abouhasna’s murder but have not been able to interview Sultani.

It is unknown who ordered the hit or the motivation behind it.

Police released CCTV images of a white van seen in the vicinity of the bushland where Mark Easter’s body was located. Picture: Police Media

A source told the Herald Sun the family still mourned Mr Abouhasna, 39, and wanted answers.

“KK was a beautiful man, everyone loved him,” a source said.

“It was an accident. But it’s been 10 years and it should be solved. He had a wife and six kids who also want to know, they want answers.

“His youngest daughter was three years old when this happened. She’s 13 now. The answers are there, other than why.”

Sultani, 35, was jailed for life in NSW after being convicted of five murders – all committed between 2013 and 2016 – making him one of the most prolific contract killers in Australian history.

The former university masters student, construction industry business owner and Rebels bikie gang leader had a sideline as a gun for hire.

Sultani, also known as Abs, was last convicted of the murder of Rebels clubmate Mark Easter, who was shot during a confrontation in June, 2015.

Abuzar Sultani confessed to the slayings of Pasquale Barbaro, Michael Davey and Mehmet Yilmaz, who was shot seven times in front of his horrified fiancee outside a house in St Marys (above). 

Sultani confessed while already serving three consecutive life sentences for the slayings of Michael Davey, Mehmet Yilmaz and mafioso figure Pasquale Barbaro, all shot dead within seven months of each other in 2016.

It was after Barbaro’s contract killing outside the inner-west Sydney home of property developer George Alex that NSW police seized the van.

Sultani is also convicted of the bashing murder of Nikola Srbin, 18, who was attacked by a group of men in Sydney’s CBD in 2013.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the homicide probe – dubbed Operation Microphonic – into the murder of Mr Abouhasna was ongoing.

She said any new information provided to police about the fatal shooting would be thoroughly investigated.

Originally published as Hitman Abuza Sultani suspected of shooting Khaled Abouhasna instead of Kaz Hamad