After being shot up to ten times in Sydney’s inner west, a former biker who was cleared of murdering Comanchero commander Mick Hawi passed away.
Yusuf Nazlioglu, 40, was the victim of a “targeted attack” at a Rhodes parking lot on Monday night and was taken in critical condition to Westmead Hospital.
Nazlioglu’s death in hospital early on Tuesday morning was confirmed by police, but they would not comment on whether they believed it was related to the recent spate of underworld attacks in Sydney that have claimed 14 lives over the past two years.
On Tuesday morning, the parking lot was fully closed off, leaving irate apartment owners unable to access their places “maybe until this afternoon,” according to a police officer.
Police, it is believed, are getting ready to tow an automobile away from the site.
Nazlioglu was shot many times in a Walker Street underground parking lot on Monday night, prompting police to scramble to secure the area around the Rhodes Central building.
As police watched, paramedics were spotted escorting a man who was severely bandaged outside of the structure.
The structure has apartments, a shopping center, and a parking garage in the basement.
With tape erected around a set of elevators and a local fast food restaurant, police could be seen assembling at one of the lobby entries.
After Hawi, the former leader of the Comanchero bikie group, was shot and killed in 2018 as he climbed into his posh four-wheel-drive outside a Rockdale Fitness First gym in Sydney’s south, Nazlioglu was charged with murder.
Despite being found not guilty, he had another run-in with the law when he admitted to having a handgun in his possession.
The gangster received a three-year prison term and was released in September 2021.
Nazlioglu knew he was a targeted man, according to disturbing clandestine recordings that were aired in court during his sentence.
In 2020, the Daily Telegraph claimed that he said, “I used to hear guys outside were coming to knock me, yeah?” from within Sydney’s Silverwater Prison.
“I used to still leave my house, brother, fearing that one day I’ll be ambushed and shot in the head.”
However, I continued to go to the same hairdresser and restaurants, so yes. I continued to be seen in the front yard and to hang out with boys on their porches while I was aware that I would eventually be approached.
Even boasting that he still goes to the mosque “where all our adversaries know we worship,” the Australian who was raised by Turkish parents.
Did we s**t ourselves, brother? They could have waited for us to leave. Did we feel fear? No.’
While a jury ruled Ahmad Doudar, a 40-year-old furniture mover, not responsible for the attack on Hawi, Nazlioglu was. Ahmad Doudar was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Father-of-one Doudar received a sentence after confessing to being an after-the-fact accomplice in Hawi’s murder.
The court heard that Doudar’s involvement in the offence entailed his using a tow truck to retrieve a hidden silver Aurion with the intention of disposing of it together with other items.
Mr. Doudar “planned to help in disposing of the automobile in order to assist” in the murder, Justice Robert Allan Hulme stated during sentencing.
After a week of deliberations, a jury returned a not-guilty verdict for Jamal El-Jaidi, the suspected getaway driver, and Nazlioglu, who was then 39 years old.
Doudar was not invited to testify at their trial despite having admitted to their role in the crime while entering a plea.
The judge stated that murders like this “do not happen by chance… they require the collaboration of numerous persons” as he sentenced Doudar for being an accessory.
Doudar’s motivation is still a mystery. The judge stated, “For all I know, Mr. Doudar may have been motivated by one or more additional motives.”
At his sentencing hearing, Hawi’s wife, Carolina Gonzalez, sister, Zeinab, and parents, Ahmad and Nahdi, all read remarks.
Under “extremely emotional testimonies of the sorrow and sadness that have followed from the taking of their loved one in the most horrible of circumstances,” they described how their loved one was taken from them.
While Nazlioglu and El-Jaidi were let go, Doudar was given a three years and four month sentence with no chance of parole.