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It was a ‘chance’ meeting with a ‘mate’ that Sam Abdulrahim’s enemies never believed, and nine years later it cost him his life.
As detectives hunt the assassins behind Abdulrahim’s daylight execution in Melbourne on Tuesday, many in the underworld think they know exactly why he got clipped.
It harks back to 2016 when Abdulrahim – by his own telling – just happened to bump into Kadir Ors outside a northern Melbourne shopping centre and gave him a warm embrace.
Immediately, the once all-powerful Melbourne crime boss George Marrogi emerged and shot Ors dead then fled on foot.
Many believe Abdulrahim’s presence at the hit indicated he set up Ors – and that he played the wrong card when he chose to side with Marrogi in that dispute.
In the years since, Marrogi has been jailed and had his criminal empire torn to shreds by determined Victoria Police work, rendering Abdulrahim’s alliance with him useless.
Ors, by contrast, had a relationship to men who would go on to become the real criminal overlords of today.
The brother of exiled crime boss Kaz Hamad was beside Ors when Abdulrahim greeted him – and gave chase to Marrogi after the fatal shots.
Sam Abdulrahim dressed in the iconic Punisher t-shirt made famous by Marvel.
Hamad was later deported from Australia in 2023 after serving a long heroin trafficking sentence, but is believed to be the main player in Melbourne’s bloody tobacco wars, which Abdulrahim also had stakes in.
Ors was a respected member of the Hamad crew, as well as Hamad’s best friend.
In CCTV video released by the Supreme Court of Victoria, Abdulrahim could be seen bolting in the opposite direction as Marrogi blasted Ors from close range.
Not convinced he had killed Ors, Marrogi then went back to his car and drove up alongside his critically injured target and finished the job in cold blooded fashion.
The Hamad crew and their allies smelled a rat in the supposedly chance meeting moments before the Ors hit – and that rat was Abdulrahim.
Police tried to pin charges on the kickboxer, suspecting he had lured Ors to his death, they could not be satisfied they had enough evidence to get a conviction.
Instead, he was questioned as a witness and forced to explain just how he happened to be at the right place at the right time for the execution.
Abdulrahim claimed he had just met a mate for lunch when he chanced upon Ors outside the Campbellfield Plaza, in Melbourne’s north.
CCTV showed Abdulrahim arrive in a white Land Rover with his then-girlfriend where they waited for seven minutes until Ors arrived.
Kadir Ors was gunned down in 2016 by George Marrogi, who just happened to be in contact with Sam Abdulrahim in the days before the murder
Sam Abdulrahim (left) moments before Kadir Ors (dressed in grey) is gunned down by George Marrogi (exiting the red vehicle)
Abdulrahim bolted to the left side of the screen while Ors went right
Marrogi can be pursuing his target moments before opening fire on Ors
George Marrogi gunned down Kadir Ors in a cold blooded execution
After greeting Ors with a hug, the men stood together chatting for another five minutes before Marrogi arrived.
During Marrogi’s trial, Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson QC told the jury they should dismiss Abdulrahim’s claims about a ‘chance meeting’.
‘The prosecution will say that this was not a chance meeting between Mr Abdulrahim and Mr Ors, but rather one which you can conclude was a prearranged meeting between Abdulrahim and Ors,’ he told them.
‘Mr Abdulrahim claims the meeting between him and Mr Ors at the carpark was a random meeting, but the prosecution do not accept this claim of a random or chance meeting.
‘Instead the prosecution allege that when Abdulrahim attended at the carpark of the shopping complex, he expected and intended to meet Mr Ors there.’
The jury heard Abdulrahim had been in contact with Marrogi on the phone four days before the slaying and was suspected of communicating with him via Snapchat right up until Ors’ demise.
In the witness box, Abdulrahim frustrated the prosecution, defence and the judge himself with his evidence.
A young Sam Abdulrahim (far left) and his family
Sam Abdulrahim and his mum after he was shot in another attempt on his life
At the end of Marrogi’s trial, Justice Paul Coghlan described Abdulrahim’s evidence as ‘entirely unsatisfactory and illogical’.
On appeal years later, the Supreme Court of Appeal would declare what Abdulrahim’s enemies already believed to be true.
‘We consider that the evidence established that the applicant (Marrogi) was connected to Abdulrahim, and that Abdulrahim had the capacity to alert the applicant to Ors’ whereabouts on the day he was shot,’ the court decided in March 2023.
‘In our view, the evidence clearly was capable of founding the inference that, whilst he was at Broadmeadows Shopping Centre, the applicant was informed by some means that Ors was at the Plaza.’
Underworld players believe Abdulrahim’s role in Ors’ murder is the reason he is dead today.
The relationship he began with Ors’ widow after his murder only rubbed salt in the wounds.
Jon Bernthal played The Punisher in Marvel’s hit tv series. Abdulrahim copied the character’s nickname
However, Abdulrahim had a major role in the current underworld war plaguing Melbourne, so other motivations and a wide range of suspects have not been discounted.
Abdulrahim had made enemies across the criminal board, including his one-time bikie club, the Mongols, and senior-ranked commanders of the Comancheros, as well as a host of rivals in the Middle Eastern organised crime scene.
There have been no fewer than 18 attacks staged against Abdulrahim – or directed at him by firebombing or shooting his friends and associates – since 2017.
On Wednesday, police identified a second car they believe is linked to the assassination.
His killers were seen fleeing the area in a white Porsche SUV, which was found ablaze a short time later on Alexandra St in Reservoir.
Police say the assailants then fled in a grey Ford Ranger ute, which was seen travelling to Western Avenue in Westmeadows.
The killers then set that car alight.
Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said he hoped Abdulrahim’s distressed family and friends would work with police to help track down his killers.
‘They’ve gone through a traumatic incident yesterday,’ he told Nova FM.
‘We will continue to speak to them as we move forward. We’ve got to give them that space so that they can grieve and do what they have to do as a family.
‘But we certainly will be continuing to speak with them as we move forward.’
