AFP asked Turkey to consider removing man facing murder charges despite legal warnings, court told

The NSW Supreme Court heard Detective Sergeant Scott Murphy, a senior officer in the AFP's Ankara post, made the request in September 2022, asking Turkish National Police to weigh up options including removing Zakaria from Turkey. At the time, federal government lawyers had warned the AFP that involvement in another country's decision to deport an individual to face criminal charges in Australia could constitute an abuse of process. The warnings concerned the removal of another high-profile law enforcement target, who cannot be legally identified, in similar circumstances.

Zakaria faces charges over the murders of father and son Toufik Hamze, 64, and Salim Hamze, 18, and a conspiracy to murder Ibrahem Hamze in 2021. He was arrested in Bodrum, on Turkey's south-west coast. He was deported from Turkey in December 2023 and brought back to Australia on a chartered Airbus A319.

Zakaria's barrister, Murugan Thangaraj, SC, told the court: "By October 2022, you had decided you would be willing to act unlawfully if it meant getting Zakaria back to NSW." Murphy denies any unlawful actions, and the AFP maintains its actions were lawful and denies any involvement in Zakaria's deportation. Zakaria's legal team is seeking a permanent stay of proceedings, alleging officers abused process by facilitating his illegal deportation in a recovery operation akin to a kidnapping.

Prosecutors last week conceded the deportation was not permitted under Turkish law because of Zakaria's pending appeal against the country's decision to deport him. His appeal was not dismissed until February 2024, two months after his deportation.

In late 2022, weeks before his arrest, Murphy told NSW Police counterparts of his intention to have Zakaria "blacklisted" and removed from Turkey. In an email read in court, Murphy earlier told NSW detectives the AFP could push Turkish authorities to detain Zakaria on immigration matters and remove or deport him on character grounds. NSW detectives raised concerns about providing Zakaria's passport, held at a Sydney police station, to AFP officers in Ankara who said they were seeking it to facilitate his eventual deportation.

Shortly after the arrest, Ankara-based officers told Superintendent Jared Taggart, then acting commander of the agency's transnational operations, that Turkish organised crime investigators had acted on intelligence provided at a meeting less than a fortnight earlier. At that meeting, Murphy and his superior, Detective Superintendent Marie Andersson, shared intelligence with investigators who later deemed Zakaria a high-priority target, according to documents tendered to court. "They determined that Zakaria needed to be targeted and removed from the country," Andersson wrote in an email read in court.

If Zakaria's application for a permanent stay succeeds, the charges against him will not be prosecuted. Trials for the offences were vacated last year after Zakaria's lawyers levelled the allegations at the AFP. His challenge has also cast doubt on the prosecutions of several other individuals returned to Australia in similar circumstances. The court has heard the AFP paid more than $1 million for Zakaria's return.

Murphy, Taggart, Andersson and other senior AFP officers, including Commissioner Krissy Barrett, have agreed to be cross-examined after being guaranteed immunity from any potential prosecution arising from their evidence. AFP lawyers unsuccessfully sought to have several senior officers, including Barrett, excused from giving evidence. Court orders prohibit sections of the officers' evidence from being published. The hearing before Justice Edward Muston continues.