The head of the Comanchero bikie gang has admitted kicking and punching Anthony Zervas, who died after a brawl at Sydney airport on March 22 2009, but told the NSW Supreme Court last week that he didn’t start the fight. Mahmoud (Mick) Hawi, who was national president of the Comanchero club at the time, said he attacked Zervas in self-defence.
Hawi, 31, and five other club members are standing trial for the murder of 29-year-old Anthony Zervas, brother of Hells Angels bikie Peter Zervas. The jury heard how a chance encounter between Hawi and Hells Angels’ Sydney Chapter boss Derek Wainohu on a flight from Melbourne, led to the fatal brawl in Sydney airport’s domestic terminal. Hawi acknowledged a long-standing hostility between the Comanchero and Hells Angel clubs.
Crown prosecutor Natalie Adams said a flurry of calls was made by various Comancheros, resulting in other members of the gang arriving at the airport terminal for the flight’s arrival, although Hawi denied that he was aware of such a plan. When they got off the plane, Hawi and Wainohu began arguing and a scuffle broke out. Hawi told the court that he could not recall saying: “Next time we see you you’re going to have bullet holes through you. You’re a dead man walking.” As he was leaving the airport, Hawi said he encountered Peter and Anthony Zervas at the check-in area, where Peter Zervas began “yelling and screaming” at him. Hawi said it was “coincidental” that he and 11 other Comanchero members encountered five members of the Hells Angels at the ticket counter.
The court heard how an altercation began and that according to Hawi, Peter Zervas ran at him. Hawi went on to describe to the court how the Zervas brothers pursued him. “I ran for my life,” Hawi said, adding Anthony Zervas chased him, and that both brothers “were going at me with whatever they had in their hands”. Hawi denied striking Anthony Zervas with a bollard, or instructing others to do so. Hawi denied the prosecution’s suggestion that he had decided to inflict “some really serious injury” on the Hells Angels: “My purpose was to get out of there, not fight.”
Hawi, Farres Abounader, Ishmail Eken, Zoran Kisacanin, Christian Menzies and Usama Potrus have each pleaded not guilty to murdering Anthony Zervas. Jurors had previously heard that Zervas died of massive head injuries and stab wounds. Zervas’ autopsy report described a tattoo along his left arm contained the words: “There’s no justice, just us”. The trial continues.