CCTV of Joe Antoun shot at his Strathfield home1:59
CCTV footage of standover man Joe Antoun being shot dead in alleged Brothers 4 Life gang hit at his Strathfield home in December 2013
Sydney’s notorious Quami brothers sentenced to minimum 100 years over violent shootings
FORMER Brothers For Life leader Farhad Qaumi has been sentenced to a minimum of 43 years’ jail for a series of “outlandish and lawless” gangland shootings and the cold blooded murder of Sydney debt collector Joe Antoun.
His brother Mumtaz Qaumi was sentenced to a maximum 50 and minimum 36 years’ jail for the murder and a number of other violent shootings. After learning he would be in his 60s when finally released, Mumtaz waved at his supporters in court and gave a thumbs up.
Shortly after Farhad learned he had been sentenced to a maximum of 60 years’ jail, he waved to family before being escorted out of the court with corrective services officers.
In handing down his sentence for Farhad and Mumtaz, Justice Peter Hamill said the pair had “indulged in a war with a criminal gang” in which “completely innocent victims were caught in the crossfire”.
“Two men are dead and it is pure good fortune that more people were not killed,” Justice Hamill said.
The brothers were found guilty in February this year of organising for a hitman to shoot Mr Antoun dead “in cold blood” after he opened the front door of his Strathfield home on December 16, 2013.
At the time Mr Antoun’s wife and young twin daughters were at home and security footage captured a hooded man knocking on the family’s home and firing several shots at Antoun as he stood in his doorway.
A seven month judge alone trial in the NSW Supreme Court last year heard the Qaumis had agreed to carry out the contract killing at the request of Antoun’s business partner Elias “Les” Elias who later fled to the Phillipines.
The murder was carried out by gunman, “Witness L” who gave evidence as the Crown’s star witness and told the court that Farhad, as the leader of the BFL’s Blacktown chapter, put “fears in the member’s hearts”.
Justice Hamill made note of how Antoun’s partner Teagan Mullens gave chilling evidence about witnessing the death of the father of her two was “executed in cold blood”.
She spoke of how her little daughters waved at the ambulance which took their father away after he was shot.
He also highlighted how Mr Antoun was involved in several disputes with notorious Sydney underworld figures including Jim Byrnes slain Mafia figure Pasquale Barbaro, who Justice Hamill suspected had a motive to kill him.
“The evidence does not allow a clear finding as to whether Pasquale Barbaro or others may have stood behind Elias in this enterprise but I suspect that he did,” Justice Hamill said when he delivered his verdict earlier this year.
Farhad was sentenced for a total 15 offences, Mumtaz for 17 and Jamil Qaumi, who was not involved in the murder, for 18.
During the previous trial Mumtaz was captured on CCTV launching himself on fellow gang member Mohammed Kalal and Corrective Services officer dragged him and his brother Farhad out of the courtroom.
Originally published as Violent gangster brothers locked up for 100 years
