The woman who witnessed Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim is in hiding after witnessing her boyfriend die in a blaze of gunfire.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal ‘Maria’, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, had been in a relationship with Abdulrahim for months before he was executed last week.
She is believed to be the only physical witness to his murder apart from the assassins.
Abdulrahim was gunned down in the underground car park at Preston’s Quest Hotel in Melbourne’s north at about 10am on Tuesday last week.
The former bikie-turned-boxer had been the target of three murder contracts, a prison bashing, three assaults, a dozen fire bombings and seven shootings.
Photos taken by press photographers at the scene soon after the murder captured Maria being comforted by friends and family.
Blood stains were visible on her white clothes as she sat weeping in full public view behind a police line.
*Maria, who had blood stains on her pants, is comforted at the scene
Maria (left) at the scene
Police say she attempted to provide first aid to the boxer after the shooting despite sustaining injuries no man could survive.
Underworld sources have told Daily Mail Australia Maria’s relationship with Abdulrahim had been no secret, and there are fears those who wished The Punisher harm may have been tracking her movements.
Abdulrahim had been married to lawyer Chloe Wakim and the couple shared a two-year-old daughter.
Both women are believed to have been present at Abdulrahim’s funeral last week.
While the married couple had maintained a low profile, they were pictured stepping out together in public for the first time in mid-2023 as Ms Wakim accompanied her husband to court as he sought to sue the Victorian parole board.
‘They were separated for the past two-and-a-half years,’ a friend of The Punisher told Daily Mail Australia.
‘That wasn’t who he was with when he was shot,’ the source said.
Sulieman ‘Sam’ Abdulrahim outside court with wife Chloe Wakim in 2023
The Quest apartments in Preston where all bloody hell broke loose
Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim had been a feared man both in and out of the ring
Maria had allegedly been in a relationship with Abdulrahim for just under a year, travelling with him overseas as he attempted to stay one step ahead of those that wished him dead.
Abdulrahim had reportedly been in hiding since May 2024 after narrowly escaping death when he was shot 17 times in the chest outside his Thomastown home.
Three months later his home was set alight in an arson attack.
Abdulrahim was not home at the time.
He also survived a hit in June 2022 when he was shot eight times while leaving his cousin’s funeral at Fawkner cemetery.
Abdulrahim had temporarily fled overseas to Bali, Thailand and Malaysia.
However, after six months in hiding, dwindling funds reportedly forced him to return to Melbourne.
‘He had a new girlfriend called Maria that had been by his side for the last 10 months travelling in and out of Australia with him and she was with him when he was shot,’ a friend told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Stop saying he was with Chloe and showing her photos have respect for his girlfriend who was actually there.’
Daily Mail Australia attempted to contact Maria via her siblings this week, but was unable to speak directly with her.
‘She doesn’t want and isn’t going to f**kin’ talk to anyone OK,’ her brother told Daily Mail Australia before warning the reporter to leave.
The Punisher’s sister Ektimal has been vocal on social media about her rage
Ektimal Abdulrahim at her brother’s grave site
Ektimal Abdulrahim has long warned people to stay away from her brother
Her sister also failed to respond to requests to make contact with Maria.
Devastated loved ones gathered at Northern Memorial Park following Abdulrahim’s burial to pay their respects.
Sharing the photos online, Abdulrahim’s sister Ektimal described her little brother as ‘my soul, my world’ as she slammed his killers.
‘Not a day goes by I won’t be next to you like I always did,’ she wrote.
‘They’re weak. They’re that weak so they got you from the back instead.
‘You died like a soldier.’
Earlier posts failed to sugar coat what might happen to anyone who hurt The Punisher.
‘Kill 4 u vice verse,’ Ektimal posted to Instagram in the months before her brother’s execution.
Underworld sources claim only a handful of people knew where and when The Punisher was in town.
He had only a day earlier flown into Melbourne from Asia.
Friends had told him to stay overseas, as recently as the previous weekend, but Abdulrahim insisted on returning.
Police are investigating how the hit crew came to know of his whereabouts.
‘Someone sold him out,’ a source told the Herald Sun last week.
Big money had been on offer for Abdulrahim’s location in recent months, with a reported $2million price on his head.
