Anthony Zervas was 29 when he died.
A bikie boss found guilty of murdering a rival gang member during a brawl at Sydney Airport has been jailed for at least 21 years and six months.
Comanchero national president Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, 31, was found guilty last November of the March 2009 murder of Anthony Zervas, the brother of Hells Angels member Peter Zervas.
In the NSW Supreme Court, Justice Robert Allan Hulme set a non-parole period of 21 years and a maximum of 28 years for the murder.
Hawi was also found guilty of affray for which he received a fixed term of three years, six months to be partly accumulated with the murder term.
The sentence is backdated to when he went into custody in May 2009.
The judge said Hawi and his Comanchero colleagues had displayed "a flagrant disregard" not only for the law, but also for the many witnesses "in whose memories the incident will live long".
Mr Zervas suffered stab wounds and massive head injuries when he was attacked with bollards and kicked, punched and stomped on as he lay on the floor of the domestic terminal.
The brawl erupted after a chance encounter between Hawi and Hells Angels boss Derek Wainohu on a flight from Melbourne.
- Mick Hawl, April 10, 2012
-----
The president of the Commanchero motor cycle club, Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi admitted today that he had punched and kicked brawl victim Anthony Zervas at Sydney Airport in March 2009 but denied hitting him with a bollard.
Mr Hawi, 31, and five other club members are standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court for the murder of Mr Zervas, 29, the brother of Hells Angels bikie Peter Zervas.
Mr Hawi, giving evidence in the Supreme Court at Paramatta, said in answer to his counsel Philip Dunn, QC, that he had punched and kicked Anthony Zervas in self-defence.
Advertisement: Story continues below
"He was coming at me with weapons," he said.
He denied hitting Anthony Zervas with a bollard or asking anyone else to do so.
Appearing before Justice Robert Hulme, Mr Hawi denied that, when he was scuffling with Anthony Zervas, he had asked any member of the Commanchero to assist him.
Mr Hawi said that he had had no intention of attacking Anthony Zervas but Peter Zervas had started to "carry on yelling and screaming" when they encountered each other at the check-in area at Sydney Airport on March 22.
Peter Zervas had said: "Did you think you are f---, do you think you can just walk away?"
Mr Hawi said he had not wanted to fight and had tried to get away but that Peter Zervas had put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a knuckleduster.
Someone had called out: "He's got a gun, he is going to shoot."
Mr Hawi said that Anthony Zervas had attacked him with a weapon.
Someone had pulled Anthony Zervas off but Peter Zervas had picked up a bollard and bashed him on the back with it.
Anthony Zervas had come back with a weapon of some sort and had hit him on the tricep and shoulder, causing bruising.
As Mr Hawi got out of the terminal building, he had looked back and Peter Zervas had called: "Come back and fight you wusses."
Mr Hawi had not accepted the invitation and got into a taxi and took off.
The court has heard that Anthony Zervas died as the result of being hit by a bollard.
Anthony Zervas was supporting members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club who confronted the Commanchero that day.
Mr Hawi is on trial with Commanchero members Farres Abounader, Ishmail Eken, Zoran Kisacanin, Christian Menzies and Usama Potrus. They have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Zervas.
Also on trial is Hells Angel David Padovan, who has denied a riot charge.
The court has heard that Mr Hawi and other Commanchero members were on a plane from Melbourne on March 22, 2009, as was Derek Wainohu, a prominent member of the Hells Angels.
The court has heard that Mr Wainohu, who was alone, sent a message for Hells Angels to assist him when they arrived at the airport.
Mr Hawi said this morning that he had seen Mr Wainohu on the plane and he had told other Commanchero members that he was there.
He agreed that he had looked at Mr Wainohu. He said he spoke to Mr Wainohu but Mr Wainohu had not replied.
When they had come out of the passenger chute at Sydney Airport, he had gone up to speak to Mr Wainohu.
Gang members had congregated and Mr Wainohu had come towards him.
"He came straight at me," he said.
Mr Wainohu had said words to the effect: "I will show you something," or "I will get something."
There had been a scuffle of five to 10 seconds and, soon after, there had been a scuffle in the passenger concourse when people had screamed to call police.
He had wanted to get out of the airport as quickly as possible because he did not want to be arrested.
The hearing continues.
By Malcolm Brown, smh.com.au, August 22, 2011
-----
Video - Brawl at Sydney Airport
Bikie Brawl at Sydney Airport
Video - Inside a Sydney Bikie Gang
Video: Guilty Verdict for Mick Hawi
Video - Bikie Brawls
-----
Australia's outlaw motorcycle gangs used to have a code by which they prosecuted their bloody turf wars and avoided publicity about their criminal activities: not at home, not at work and not in front of women or children. But on March 22, in the terminal of one of Australia's busiest airports, two of the gangs rewrote the code in blood when one gang member was bashed to death in front of horrified bystanders, women and children included.
The killing was just one of a series of "bikie" murders and shootings in the past few weeks that has sparked widespread fear in Sydney and elsewhere. Police are concerned that a new and more deadly generation of "one-percenters" — as the bikies like to call themselves, because they believe they are part of a tiny group outside the law — has taken over. As a result, the police want stricter laws to allow them to crack down on the gangs.
The latest trouble began on Flight 430 to Sydney last Sunday. Aboard the plane was a group of heavily tattooed and muscled men who appeared agitated and were sending text messages from their cell phones, according to other passengers. The men were bikies from two of Australia's most feared gangs — the Comancheros and the Hells Angels, both of which had been in the southern city of Melbourne attending, ironically enough, a so-called peace summit.
As soon as the men deplaned, they began pushing and shoving one another before launching into a wild brawl that raged through Sydney's domestic terminal, bowling over a baby in a stroller and into the secure check-in area, where waiting associates joined in. In front of horrified passengers, one of the brawlers was allegedly knocked to the ground, and with what was described as a sickening "crunch" fatally bashed in the head with a steel post used to mark passenger lines. As the man lay dying in a pool of blood, the mob fled in taxis. One group was picked up by police in Sydney's south; four men have been charged with affray, or group-fighting in a public place that puts bystanders in danger.
The following night, a volley of shots peppered a Sydney home in what police fear was another biker-gang-related incident. Then on Tuesday afternoon, two men, one of whom was a member of the Rebels bikie gang, were shot dead in a suburban home in Australia's capital, Canberra, a town not renowned for violent shooting murders.
Police ruled out a link between the Canberra killing and the airport incident, but investigations into other attacks are continuing. The violence has triggered outrage and calls for harsher penalties as well as criticism of law-enforcement agencies for failing to crack down on the gangs earlier. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was in the U.S. at the time of the attacks, said the behavior was "unacceptable in Australia, absolutely unacceptable."
The government of New South Wales has established a task force of 75 officers to track the bike gangs. It is also pondering the introduction of new laws to declare illegal membership in or association with particular clubs. "These groups are behaving like wild animals — uncivilized and with no regard for our community. If they behave like this, then we have no choice but to hunt them down and deal with them," an angry New South Wales police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, told reporters. Scipione has defended the police record in dealing with gangs. He says that in the past six months, 185 gang members and associates have been charged with 572 offenses, most of them related to violence, drugs and weapons.
But the violence looks unlikely to abate anytime soon. Bikie gang expert and criminologist Arthur Veno, a professor at Monash University in Melbourne, says the step-up in violence is happening because of the rise of Notorious, a younger gang that has muscled in on established gangs' turf in Sydney. "This new gang doesn't have the traditional rules of engagement that the bikies share among themselves," he says. "The war has broadened from the issue of a simple battle over the issue of the drug pyramid. It has now spilled into the long-term affiliations between clubs and has allowed old conflicts to surface." Veno says the gangs had been trying to broker a peace to head off the plans for new laws banning their existence. "[Notorious] have made an outrageous move of hitting people coming from peace talks that could have saved their bacon."
An Australian Crime Commission report this year revealed that 3,300 outlaw motorcycle-gang members are active in Australia, with 19 of 39 gangs operating in New South Wales. In the lead-up to Sunday's attack, a series of suspected bikie-related crimes had raged across the state capital, Sydney, including a drive-by shooting that occurred just hours before the airport attack that left two men injured and seven homes damaged. In February, the Hells Angels' clubhouse was bombed.
This is not the first time gang-related violence has shocked Australia. In the parking lot of a tavern in western Sydney 25 years ago, the Comancheros and the Bandidos went at each other in a shoot-out that left seven people, including a female bystander, dead and the community stunned. Australians hope those days haven't returned.
- Rory Callinan, March 29, 2009
A bikie boss found guilty of murdering a rival gang member during a brawl at Sydney Airport has been jailed for at least 21 years and six months.
Comanchero national president Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, 31, was found guilty last November of the March 2009 murder of Anthony Zervas, the brother of Hells Angels member Peter Zervas.
In the NSW Supreme Court, Justice Robert Allan Hulme set a non-parole period of 21 years and a maximum of 28 years for the murder.
Hawi was also found guilty of affray for which he received a fixed term of three years, six months to be partly accumulated with the murder term.
The sentence is backdated to when he went into custody in May 2009.
The judge said Hawi and his Comanchero colleagues had displayed "a flagrant disregard" not only for the law, but also for the many witnesses "in whose memories the incident will live long".
Mr Zervas suffered stab wounds and massive head injuries when he was attacked with bollards and kicked, punched and stomped on as he lay on the floor of the domestic terminal.
The brawl erupted after a chance encounter between Hawi and Hells Angels boss Derek Wainohu on a flight from Melbourne.
- Mick Hawl, April 10, 2012
-----
The president of the Commanchero motor cycle club, Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi admitted today that he had punched and kicked brawl victim Anthony Zervas at Sydney Airport in March 2009 but denied hitting him with a bollard.
Mr Hawi, 31, and five other club members are standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court for the murder of Mr Zervas, 29, the brother of Hells Angels bikie Peter Zervas.
Mr Hawi, giving evidence in the Supreme Court at Paramatta, said in answer to his counsel Philip Dunn, QC, that he had punched and kicked Anthony Zervas in self-defence.
Advertisement: Story continues below
"He was coming at me with weapons," he said.
He denied hitting Anthony Zervas with a bollard or asking anyone else to do so.
Appearing before Justice Robert Hulme, Mr Hawi denied that, when he was scuffling with Anthony Zervas, he had asked any member of the Commanchero to assist him.
Mr Hawi said that he had had no intention of attacking Anthony Zervas but Peter Zervas had started to "carry on yelling and screaming" when they encountered each other at the check-in area at Sydney Airport on March 22.
Peter Zervas had said: "Did you think you are f---, do you think you can just walk away?"
Mr Hawi said he had not wanted to fight and had tried to get away but that Peter Zervas had put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a knuckleduster.
Someone had called out: "He's got a gun, he is going to shoot."
Mr Hawi said that Anthony Zervas had attacked him with a weapon.
Someone had pulled Anthony Zervas off but Peter Zervas had picked up a bollard and bashed him on the back with it.
Anthony Zervas had come back with a weapon of some sort and had hit him on the tricep and shoulder, causing bruising.
As Mr Hawi got out of the terminal building, he had looked back and Peter Zervas had called: "Come back and fight you wusses."
Mr Hawi had not accepted the invitation and got into a taxi and took off.
The court has heard that Anthony Zervas died as the result of being hit by a bollard.
Anthony Zervas was supporting members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club who confronted the Commanchero that day.
Mr Hawi is on trial with Commanchero members Farres Abounader, Ishmail Eken, Zoran Kisacanin, Christian Menzies and Usama Potrus. They have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Zervas.
Also on trial is Hells Angel David Padovan, who has denied a riot charge.
The court has heard that Mr Hawi and other Commanchero members were on a plane from Melbourne on March 22, 2009, as was Derek Wainohu, a prominent member of the Hells Angels.
The court has heard that Mr Wainohu, who was alone, sent a message for Hells Angels to assist him when they arrived at the airport.
Mr Hawi said this morning that he had seen Mr Wainohu on the plane and he had told other Commanchero members that he was there.
He agreed that he had looked at Mr Wainohu. He said he spoke to Mr Wainohu but Mr Wainohu had not replied.
When they had come out of the passenger chute at Sydney Airport, he had gone up to speak to Mr Wainohu.
Gang members had congregated and Mr Wainohu had come towards him.
"He came straight at me," he said.
Mr Wainohu had said words to the effect: "I will show you something," or "I will get something."
There had been a scuffle of five to 10 seconds and, soon after, there had been a scuffle in the passenger concourse when people had screamed to call police.
He had wanted to get out of the airport as quickly as possible because he did not want to be arrested.
The hearing continues.
By Malcolm Brown, smh.com.au, August 22, 2011
-----
Video - Brawl at Sydney Airport
Bikie Brawl at Sydney Airport
Video - Inside a Sydney Bikie Gang
Video: Guilty Verdict for Mick Hawi
Video - Bikie Brawls
-----
Australia's outlaw motorcycle gangs used to have a code by which they prosecuted their bloody turf wars and avoided publicity about their criminal activities: not at home, not at work and not in front of women or children. But on March 22, in the terminal of one of Australia's busiest airports, two of the gangs rewrote the code in blood when one gang member was bashed to death in front of horrified bystanders, women and children included.
The killing was just one of a series of "bikie" murders and shootings in the past few weeks that has sparked widespread fear in Sydney and elsewhere. Police are concerned that a new and more deadly generation of "one-percenters" — as the bikies like to call themselves, because they believe they are part of a tiny group outside the law — has taken over. As a result, the police want stricter laws to allow them to crack down on the gangs.
The latest trouble began on Flight 430 to Sydney last Sunday. Aboard the plane was a group of heavily tattooed and muscled men who appeared agitated and were sending text messages from their cell phones, according to other passengers. The men were bikies from two of Australia's most feared gangs — the Comancheros and the Hells Angels, both of which had been in the southern city of Melbourne attending, ironically enough, a so-called peace summit.
As soon as the men deplaned, they began pushing and shoving one another before launching into a wild brawl that raged through Sydney's domestic terminal, bowling over a baby in a stroller and into the secure check-in area, where waiting associates joined in. In front of horrified passengers, one of the brawlers was allegedly knocked to the ground, and with what was described as a sickening "crunch" fatally bashed in the head with a steel post used to mark passenger lines. As the man lay dying in a pool of blood, the mob fled in taxis. One group was picked up by police in Sydney's south; four men have been charged with affray, or group-fighting in a public place that puts bystanders in danger.
The following night, a volley of shots peppered a Sydney home in what police fear was another biker-gang-related incident. Then on Tuesday afternoon, two men, one of whom was a member of the Rebels bikie gang, were shot dead in a suburban home in Australia's capital, Canberra, a town not renowned for violent shooting murders.
Police ruled out a link between the Canberra killing and the airport incident, but investigations into other attacks are continuing. The violence has triggered outrage and calls for harsher penalties as well as criticism of law-enforcement agencies for failing to crack down on the gangs earlier. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was in the U.S. at the time of the attacks, said the behavior was "unacceptable in Australia, absolutely unacceptable."
The government of New South Wales has established a task force of 75 officers to track the bike gangs. It is also pondering the introduction of new laws to declare illegal membership in or association with particular clubs. "These groups are behaving like wild animals — uncivilized and with no regard for our community. If they behave like this, then we have no choice but to hunt them down and deal with them," an angry New South Wales police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, told reporters. Scipione has defended the police record in dealing with gangs. He says that in the past six months, 185 gang members and associates have been charged with 572 offenses, most of them related to violence, drugs and weapons.
But the violence looks unlikely to abate anytime soon. Bikie gang expert and criminologist Arthur Veno, a professor at Monash University in Melbourne, says the step-up in violence is happening because of the rise of Notorious, a younger gang that has muscled in on established gangs' turf in Sydney. "This new gang doesn't have the traditional rules of engagement that the bikies share among themselves," he says. "The war has broadened from the issue of a simple battle over the issue of the drug pyramid. It has now spilled into the long-term affiliations between clubs and has allowed old conflicts to surface." Veno says the gangs had been trying to broker a peace to head off the plans for new laws banning their existence. "[Notorious] have made an outrageous move of hitting people coming from peace talks that could have saved their bacon."
An Australian Crime Commission report this year revealed that 3,300 outlaw motorcycle-gang members are active in Australia, with 19 of 39 gangs operating in New South Wales. In the lead-up to Sunday's attack, a series of suspected bikie-related crimes had raged across the state capital, Sydney, including a drive-by shooting that occurred just hours before the airport attack that left two men injured and seven homes damaged. In February, the Hells Angels' clubhouse was bombed.
This is not the first time gang-related violence has shocked Australia. In the parking lot of a tavern in western Sydney 25 years ago, the Comancheros and the Bandidos went at each other in a shoot-out that left seven people, including a female bystander, dead and the community stunned. Australians hope those days haven't returned.
- Rory Callinan, March 29, 2009
Anthony Zervas was 29 when he died.
A bikie boss found guilty of murdering a rival gang member during a brawl at Sydney Airport has been jailed for at least 21 years and six months.
Comanchero national president Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, 31, was found guilty last November of the March 2009 murder of Anthony Zervas, the brother of Hells Angels member Peter Zervas.
In the NSW Supreme Court, Justice Robert Allan Hulme set a non-parole period of 21 years and a maximum of 28 years for the murder.
Hawi was also found guilty of affray for which he received a fixed term of three years, six months to be partly accumulated with the murder term.
The sentence is backdated to when he went into custody in May 2009.
The judge said Hawi and his Comanchero colleagues had displayed "a flagrant disregard" not only for the law, but also for the many witnesses "in whose memories the incident will live long".
Mr Zervas suffered stab wounds and massive head injuries when he was attacked with bollards and kicked, punched and stomped on as he lay on the floor of the domestic terminal.
The brawl erupted after a chance encounter between Hawi and Hells Angels boss Derek Wainohu on a flight from Melbourne.
- Mick Hawl, April 10, 2012
-----
The president of the Commanchero motor cycle club, Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi admitted today that he had punched and kicked brawl victim Anthony Zervas at Sydney Airport in March 2009 but denied hitting him with a bollard.
Mr Hawi, 31, and five other club members are standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court for the murder of Mr Zervas, 29, the brother of Hells Angels bikie Peter Zervas.
Mr Hawi, giving evidence in the Supreme Court at Paramatta, said in answer to his counsel Philip Dunn, QC, that he had punched and kicked Anthony Zervas in self-defence.
Advertisement: Story continues below
"He was coming at me with weapons," he said.
He denied hitting Anthony Zervas with a bollard or asking anyone else to do so.
Appearing before Justice Robert Hulme, Mr Hawi denied that, when he was scuffling with Anthony Zervas, he had asked any member of the Commanchero to assist him.
Mr Hawi said that he had had no intention of attacking Anthony Zervas but Peter Zervas had started to "carry on yelling and screaming" when they encountered each other at the check-in area at Sydney Airport on March 22.
Peter Zervas had said: "Did you think you are f---, do you think you can just walk away?"
Mr Hawi said he had not wanted to fight and had tried to get away but that Peter Zervas had put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a knuckleduster.
Someone had called out: "He's got a gun, he is going to shoot."
Mr Hawi said that Anthony Zervas had attacked him with a weapon.
Someone had pulled Anthony Zervas off but Peter Zervas had picked up a bollard and bashed him on the back with it.
Anthony Zervas had come back with a weapon of some sort and had hit him on the tricep and shoulder, causing bruising.
As Mr Hawi got out of the terminal building, he had looked back and Peter Zervas had called: "Come back and fight you wusses."
Mr Hawi had not accepted the invitation and got into a taxi and took off.
The court has heard that Anthony Zervas died as the result of being hit by a bollard.
Anthony Zervas was supporting members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club who confronted the Commanchero that day.
Mr Hawi is on trial with Commanchero members Farres Abounader, Ishmail Eken, Zoran Kisacanin, Christian Menzies and Usama Potrus. They have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Zervas.
Also on trial is Hells Angel David Padovan, who has denied a riot charge.
The court has heard that Mr Hawi and other Commanchero members were on a plane from Melbourne on March 22, 2009, as was Derek Wainohu, a prominent member of the Hells Angels.
The court has heard that Mr Wainohu, who was alone, sent a message for Hells Angels to assist him when they arrived at the airport.
Mr Hawi said this morning that he had seen Mr Wainohu on the plane and he had told other Commanchero members that he was there.
He agreed that he had looked at Mr Wainohu. He said he spoke to Mr Wainohu but Mr Wainohu had not replied.
When they had come out of the passenger chute at Sydney Airport, he had gone up to speak to Mr Wainohu.
Gang members had congregated and Mr Wainohu had come towards him.
"He came straight at me," he said.
Mr Wainohu had said words to the effect: "I will show you something," or "I will get something."
There had been a scuffle of five to 10 seconds and, soon after, there had been a scuffle in the passenger concourse when people had screamed to call police.
He had wanted to get out of the airport as quickly as possible because he did not want to be arrested.
The hearing continues.
By Malcolm Brown, smh.com.au, August 22, 2011
-----
Video - Brawl at Sydney Airport
Bikie Brawl at Sydney Airport
Video - Inside a Sydney Bikie Gang
Video: Guilty Verdict for Mick Hawi
Video - Bikie Brawls
-----
Australia's outlaw motorcycle gangs used to have a code by which they prosecuted their bloody turf wars and avoided publicity about their criminal activities: not at home, not at work and not in front of women or children. But on March 22, in the terminal of one of Australia's busiest airports, two of the gangs rewrote the code in blood when one gang member was bashed to death in front of horrified bystanders, women and children included.
The killing was just one of a series of "bikie" murders and shootings in the past few weeks that has sparked widespread fear in Sydney and elsewhere. Police are concerned that a new and more deadly generation of "one-percenters" — as the bikies like to call themselves, because they believe they are part of a tiny group outside the law — has taken over. As a result, the police want stricter laws to allow them to crack down on the gangs.
The latest trouble began on Flight 430 to Sydney last Sunday. Aboard the plane was a group of heavily tattooed and muscled men who appeared agitated and were sending text messages from their cell phones, according to other passengers. The men were bikies from two of Australia's most feared gangs — the Comancheros and the Hells Angels, both of which had been in the southern city of Melbourne attending, ironically enough, a so-called peace summit.
As soon as the men deplaned, they began pushing and shoving one another before launching into a wild brawl that raged through Sydney's domestic terminal, bowling over a baby in a stroller and into the secure check-in area, where waiting associates joined in. In front of horrified passengers, one of the brawlers was allegedly knocked to the ground, and with what was described as a sickening "crunch" fatally bashed in the head with a steel post used to mark passenger lines. As the man lay dying in a pool of blood, the mob fled in taxis. One group was picked up by police in Sydney's south; four men have been charged with affray, or group-fighting in a public place that puts bystanders in danger.
The following night, a volley of shots peppered a Sydney home in what police fear was another biker-gang-related incident. Then on Tuesday afternoon, two men, one of whom was a member of the Rebels bikie gang, were shot dead in a suburban home in Australia's capital, Canberra, a town not renowned for violent shooting murders.
Police ruled out a link between the Canberra killing and the airport incident, but investigations into other attacks are continuing. The violence has triggered outrage and calls for harsher penalties as well as criticism of law-enforcement agencies for failing to crack down on the gangs earlier. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was in the U.S. at the time of the attacks, said the behavior was "unacceptable in Australia, absolutely unacceptable."
The government of New South Wales has established a task force of 75 officers to track the bike gangs. It is also pondering the introduction of new laws to declare illegal membership in or association with particular clubs. "These groups are behaving like wild animals — uncivilized and with no regard for our community. If they behave like this, then we have no choice but to hunt them down and deal with them," an angry New South Wales police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, told reporters. Scipione has defended the police record in dealing with gangs. He says that in the past six months, 185 gang members and associates have been charged with 572 offenses, most of them related to violence, drugs and weapons.
But the violence looks unlikely to abate anytime soon. Bikie gang expert and criminologist Arthur Veno, a professor at Monash University in Melbourne, says the step-up in violence is happening because of the rise of Notorious, a younger gang that has muscled in on established gangs' turf in Sydney. "This new gang doesn't have the traditional rules of engagement that the bikies share among themselves," he says. "The war has broadened from the issue of a simple battle over the issue of the drug pyramid. It has now spilled into the long-term affiliations between clubs and has allowed old conflicts to surface." Veno says the gangs had been trying to broker a peace to head off the plans for new laws banning their existence. "[Notorious] have made an outrageous move of hitting people coming from peace talks that could have saved their bacon."
An Australian Crime Commission report this year revealed that 3,300 outlaw motorcycle-gang members are active in Australia, with 19 of 39 gangs operating in New South Wales. In the lead-up to Sunday's attack, a series of suspected bikie-related crimes had raged across the state capital, Sydney, including a drive-by shooting that occurred just hours before the airport attack that left two men injured and seven homes damaged. In February, the Hells Angels' clubhouse was bombed.
This is not the first time gang-related violence has shocked Australia. In the parking lot of a tavern in western Sydney 25 years ago, the Comancheros and the Bandidos went at each other in a shoot-out that left seven people, including a female bystander, dead and the community stunned. Australians hope those days haven't returned.
- Rory Callinan, March 29, 2009
A bikie boss found guilty of murdering a rival gang member during a brawl at Sydney Airport has been jailed for at least 21 years and six months.
Comanchero national president Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, 31, was found guilty last November of the March 2009 murder of Anthony Zervas, the brother of Hells Angels member Peter Zervas.
In the NSW Supreme Court, Justice Robert Allan Hulme set a non-parole period of 21 years and a maximum of 28 years for the murder.
Hawi was also found guilty of affray for which he received a fixed term of three years, six months to be partly accumulated with the murder term.
The sentence is backdated to when he went into custody in May 2009.
The judge said Hawi and his Comanchero colleagues had displayed "a flagrant disregard" not only for the law, but also for the many witnesses "in whose memories the incident will live long".
Mr Zervas suffered stab wounds and massive head injuries when he was attacked with bollards and kicked, punched and stomped on as he lay on the floor of the domestic terminal.
The brawl erupted after a chance encounter between Hawi and Hells Angels boss Derek Wainohu on a flight from Melbourne.
- Mick Hawl, April 10, 2012
-----
The president of the Commanchero motor cycle club, Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi admitted today that he had punched and kicked brawl victim Anthony Zervas at Sydney Airport in March 2009 but denied hitting him with a bollard.
Mr Hawi, 31, and five other club members are standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court for the murder of Mr Zervas, 29, the brother of Hells Angels bikie Peter Zervas.
Mr Hawi, giving evidence in the Supreme Court at Paramatta, said in answer to his counsel Philip Dunn, QC, that he had punched and kicked Anthony Zervas in self-defence.
Advertisement: Story continues below
"He was coming at me with weapons," he said.
He denied hitting Anthony Zervas with a bollard or asking anyone else to do so.
Appearing before Justice Robert Hulme, Mr Hawi denied that, when he was scuffling with Anthony Zervas, he had asked any member of the Commanchero to assist him.
Mr Hawi said that he had had no intention of attacking Anthony Zervas but Peter Zervas had started to "carry on yelling and screaming" when they encountered each other at the check-in area at Sydney Airport on March 22.
Peter Zervas had said: "Did you think you are f---, do you think you can just walk away?"
Mr Hawi said he had not wanted to fight and had tried to get away but that Peter Zervas had put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a knuckleduster.
Someone had called out: "He's got a gun, he is going to shoot."
Mr Hawi said that Anthony Zervas had attacked him with a weapon.
Someone had pulled Anthony Zervas off but Peter Zervas had picked up a bollard and bashed him on the back with it.
Anthony Zervas had come back with a weapon of some sort and had hit him on the tricep and shoulder, causing bruising.
As Mr Hawi got out of the terminal building, he had looked back and Peter Zervas had called: "Come back and fight you wusses."
Mr Hawi had not accepted the invitation and got into a taxi and took off.
The court has heard that Anthony Zervas died as the result of being hit by a bollard.
Anthony Zervas was supporting members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club who confronted the Commanchero that day.
Mr Hawi is on trial with Commanchero members Farres Abounader, Ishmail Eken, Zoran Kisacanin, Christian Menzies and Usama Potrus. They have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Zervas.
Also on trial is Hells Angel David Padovan, who has denied a riot charge.
The court has heard that Mr Hawi and other Commanchero members were on a plane from Melbourne on March 22, 2009, as was Derek Wainohu, a prominent member of the Hells Angels.
The court has heard that Mr Wainohu, who was alone, sent a message for Hells Angels to assist him when they arrived at the airport.
Mr Hawi said this morning that he had seen Mr Wainohu on the plane and he had told other Commanchero members that he was there.
He agreed that he had looked at Mr Wainohu. He said he spoke to Mr Wainohu but Mr Wainohu had not replied.
When they had come out of the passenger chute at Sydney Airport, he had gone up to speak to Mr Wainohu.
Gang members had congregated and Mr Wainohu had come towards him.
"He came straight at me," he said.
Mr Wainohu had said words to the effect: "I will show you something," or "I will get something."
There had been a scuffle of five to 10 seconds and, soon after, there had been a scuffle in the passenger concourse when people had screamed to call police.
He had wanted to get out of the airport as quickly as possible because he did not want to be arrested.
The hearing continues.
By Malcolm Brown, smh.com.au, August 22, 2011
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Video - Brawl at Sydney Airport
Bikie Brawl at Sydney Airport
Video - Inside a Sydney Bikie Gang
Video: Guilty Verdict for Mick Hawi
Video - Bikie Brawls
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Australia's outlaw motorcycle gangs used to have a code by which they prosecuted their bloody turf wars and avoided publicity about their criminal activities: not at home, not at work and not in front of women or children. But on March 22, in the terminal of one of Australia's busiest airports, two of the gangs rewrote the code in blood when one gang member was bashed to death in front of horrified bystanders, women and children included.
The killing was just one of a series of "bikie" murders and shootings in the past few weeks that has sparked widespread fear in Sydney and elsewhere. Police are concerned that a new and more deadly generation of "one-percenters" — as the bikies like to call themselves, because they believe they are part of a tiny group outside the law — has taken over. As a result, the police want stricter laws to allow them to crack down on the gangs.
The latest trouble began on Flight 430 to Sydney last Sunday. Aboard the plane was a group of heavily tattooed and muscled men who appeared agitated and were sending text messages from their cell phones, according to other passengers. The men were bikies from two of Australia's most feared gangs — the Comancheros and the Hells Angels, both of which had been in the southern city of Melbourne attending, ironically enough, a so-called peace summit.
As soon as the men deplaned, they began pushing and shoving one another before launching into a wild brawl that raged through Sydney's domestic terminal, bowling over a baby in a stroller and into the secure check-in area, where waiting associates joined in. In front of horrified passengers, one of the brawlers was allegedly knocked to the ground, and with what was described as a sickening "crunch" fatally bashed in the head with a steel post used to mark passenger lines. As the man lay dying in a pool of blood, the mob fled in taxis. One group was picked up by police in Sydney's south; four men have been charged with affray, or group-fighting in a public place that puts bystanders in danger.
The following night, a volley of shots peppered a Sydney home in what police fear was another biker-gang-related incident. Then on Tuesday afternoon, two men, one of whom was a member of the Rebels bikie gang, were shot dead in a suburban home in Australia's capital, Canberra, a town not renowned for violent shooting murders.
Police ruled out a link between the Canberra killing and the airport incident, but investigations into other attacks are continuing. The violence has triggered outrage and calls for harsher penalties as well as criticism of law-enforcement agencies for failing to crack down on the gangs earlier. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was in the U.S. at the time of the attacks, said the behavior was "unacceptable in Australia, absolutely unacceptable."
The government of New South Wales has established a task force of 75 officers to track the bike gangs. It is also pondering the introduction of new laws to declare illegal membership in or association with particular clubs. "These groups are behaving like wild animals — uncivilized and with no regard for our community. If they behave like this, then we have no choice but to hunt them down and deal with them," an angry New South Wales police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, told reporters. Scipione has defended the police record in dealing with gangs. He says that in the past six months, 185 gang members and associates have been charged with 572 offenses, most of them related to violence, drugs and weapons.
But the violence looks unlikely to abate anytime soon. Bikie gang expert and criminologist Arthur Veno, a professor at Monash University in Melbourne, says the step-up in violence is happening because of the rise of Notorious, a younger gang that has muscled in on established gangs' turf in Sydney. "This new gang doesn't have the traditional rules of engagement that the bikies share among themselves," he says. "The war has broadened from the issue of a simple battle over the issue of the drug pyramid. It has now spilled into the long-term affiliations between clubs and has allowed old conflicts to surface." Veno says the gangs had been trying to broker a peace to head off the plans for new laws banning their existence. "[Notorious] have made an outrageous move of hitting people coming from peace talks that could have saved their bacon."
An Australian Crime Commission report this year revealed that 3,300 outlaw motorcycle-gang members are active in Australia, with 19 of 39 gangs operating in New South Wales. In the lead-up to Sunday's attack, a series of suspected bikie-related crimes had raged across the state capital, Sydney, including a drive-by shooting that occurred just hours before the airport attack that left two men injured and seven homes damaged. In February, the Hells Angels' clubhouse was bombed.
This is not the first time gang-related violence has shocked Australia. In the parking lot of a tavern in western Sydney 25 years ago, the Comancheros and the Bandidos went at each other in a shoot-out that left seven people, including a female bystander, dead and the community stunned. Australians hope those days haven't returned.
- Rory Callinan, March 29, 2009
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IN LOVING MEMORY OF
OUR BELOVED FATHER, SON AND BROTHER
ANTHONY ZERVAS
AGED 29
BORN 24th APRIL 1979
PASSED AWAY 22nd MARCH 2009
Someday I will be free But forever I will remember
What this place has done to me They took away my freedom
But this I did expect Then they took away my dignity
And bruised my self-respect
They robbed me of my memories Each time they locked the gate
They showed me no compassion and taught me how to hate
But in the end I'll come out best I'll beat them in their game
I'll walk out with my head high I'll walk with NO Shame
AIONIA H MNHMH
There's no
Justice
"Just Us"
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