{"id":51317,"date":"2026-07-15T21:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/51317\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:44:13","slug":"afp-commissioner-krissy-barrett-and-predecessor-to-be-called-in-masood-zakaria-deportation-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/51317\/","title":{"rendered":"AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett and predecessor to be called in Masood Zakaria deportation case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Krissy Barrett is set to be called before the NSW Supreme Court to give evidence over the controversial extradition of an accused Sydney underworld figure.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Barrett, her predecessor Reece Kershaw and some of Australia’s most senior law enforcement figures are among those to potentially be called as witnesses, the ABC understands.<\/p>\n

Accused Sydney gangster Masood Zakaria is seeking to have his murder charges thrown out on the grounds he was unlawfully deported by a private contractor from T\u00fcrkiye to Sydney.<\/p>\n

Mr Zakaria’s lawyers have told the court they expect to hear from up to 35 witnesses.<\/p>\n

\"Masood<\/p>\n

Mr Zakaria argues his deportation back to Sydney was akin to a “kidnapping” by the AFP. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Mr Zakaria is charged with the murders of Salim and Toufik Hamze at the height of the underworld war between the Hamzy and Alameddine crime families.<\/p>\n

He is also facing charges of conspiring to murder Ibrahem Hamze, directing a criminal group, drug supply and proceeds of crime offences.<\/p>\n

Police believe Mr Zakaria fled Australia by stowing away on a fishing vessel in December 2021 after learning warrants for his arrest had been issued.<\/p>\n

He was later arrested by Turkish authorities in a villa in the seaside town of Mulga in January 2023.<\/p>\n

Do you know more?<\/p>\n

If you have any information about the story, contact Anton Rose<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Million-dollar deportation<\/p>\n

Mr Zakaria’s lawyers have previously described his removal from T\u00fcrkiye as “a kidnapping” by the AFP.<\/p>\n

His legal team argues the case should be thrown out because the AFP’s decision to hire a private company to take him into custody and transport him back to Australia was unlawful.<\/p>\n

The AFP has maintained its actions were lawful and that Mr Zakaria was legally returned to Australia.<\/p>\n

\"Masood<\/p>\n

Mr Zakaria is charged with two counts of murder relating to the Alameddines’ gang war with the Hamzy family. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Documents obtained by the ABC show the AFP paid the company, Sky Traders, more than $1 million to obtain custody of Mr Zakaria in T\u00fcrkiye and transport him to Sydney.<\/p>\n

The same documents tendered to court detailed how senior police celebrated and congratulated each other over the capture and return of Mr Zakaria three years ago.<\/p>\n

The ABC previously revealed law enforcement intelligence tracked Mr Zakaria to Istanbul<\/a> where he was allegedly seen in the company of other Australian fugitives.<\/p>\n

Questions over tea set gift<\/p>\n

Mr Kershaw, who was the AFP commissioner at the time, is set be questioned by Mr Zakaria’s lawyers.<\/p>\n

Court documents show Mr Kershaw was gifted a tea set valued at $500 by Turkish authorities around the same time.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Barrett is being called as she was involved in the attempts to extradite Mr Zakaria in her previous role with the AFP.<\/p>\n

\"Reece<\/p>\n

Mr Kershaw is being called to give evidence by Mr Zakaria over his role in the extradition attempt. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)<\/p>\n

Both Mr Kershaw and Commissioner Barrett declined to comment through the AFP when contacted by the ABC.<\/p>\n

Senior NSW Police officers are also set to be called as witnesses in the case arguing over the legality of Mr Zakaria’s deportation.<\/p>\n

Documents tendered in court as part of Mr Zakaria’s case detailed the fractious relationship between the NSW Police and the AFP at the time.<\/p>\n

The Istanbul hideout: Secret files expose Australia’s underworld empire offshore<\/a><\/p>\n

Istanbul was once the hideout of choice for Australian crooks. Now a Sydney gangster’s legal challenge has revealed how it all unravelled for the “Aussie Cartel”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In one email an AFP officer wrote: “Nswp happy? Bloody should be after all this work and effort. Do t (sic) think they’d ever really understand what it takes from beginning to end”.<\/p>\n

The AFP decided to foot the $1 million bill to contractors Sky Traders and Hart International for the extradition, as opposed to looping in their NSW Police colleagues.<\/p>\n

A Supreme Court hearing to determine whether Mr Zakaria’s charges should be dismissed is due to take place later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Krissy Barrett is set to be called before the NSW Supreme Court to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[103,13458,7429,4757,2021,36349,247],"class_list":["post-51317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-afp","tag-deportation","tag-krissy-barrett","tag-masood-zakaria","tag-nsw-police","tag-reece-kershaw","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}