A man accused of planning a fatal suburban shooting will remain free without monitoring after the NSW government banned ankle bracelets for people on bail.
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See subscription optionsPolice believe that the deadly July 2023 shooting of three people in their cars on a street about 2am in Greenacre in Sydney's west was sparked by a dispute between two of the city's criminal gangs.
Adam El-Shaimy, 36, has been charged with murder and two counts of shoot with intent to murder but was granted bail in October 2024 after putting up $2.2 million in surety.
One of his strict conditions was wearing an ankle bracelet.
After the NSW government banned electronic monitoring via private firms because of concerns about their effectiveness in May, crown prosecutors sought to place El-Shaimy back on remand.
Leaving the 36-year-old outside prison without an ankle bracelet would pose a unacceptable risk of flight, prosecutor Damien Hannan told Justice Andrew Coleman on Tuesday.
The judge noted that El-Shaimy couldn't be fitted with electronic monitoring run by NSW Correctives Services as that could only be done in prison.
CCTV footage was played on Tuesday of El-Shaimy and others charged over the alleged murder plot meeting up before and afterwards, and the movements of cars around the time of the shooting.
The hit was allegedly carried out after a tracker was found on a vehicle belonging to one associate Ammar Chahal, 40, leading the gang to believe that a rival crime organisation was after him, the court was told.
A plan was allegedly formed to park the tracked car on the street near Chahal's Greenacre house setting a trap.
However, the alleged gunman Anthony Pele was told not to shoot at anyone in their cars and instead to wait until anyone tried to grab Chahal from his home, El-Shaimy's barrister Philip Strickland said.
A conversation recorded by an undercover police officer showed that the shooter worked alone, the barrister argued.
"What did you do that for?" Chahal allegedly asked.
"Deal was you do it outside my house so you've got an alibi."
Pele - who is overseas and has a warrant out for his arrest - then said he acted on his own, Mr Strickland told the court.
"It was Pele on his own bat," the barrister said.
Ahmed Al Azzam, 25, was shot and later died in hospital while a couple in a separate car were also hit with bullets, leaving the man with life-altering spinal injuries.
While El-Shaimy was not there when the shooting occurred, he is accused of agreeing to the deadly plan and participating in it.
He was allegedly part of a convoy of white BMWs escorting Pele's vehicle to act as a distraction for police and rival gangs before the gunman's car peeled off and headed to the shooting.
Mr Strickland urged his client's continued release without monitoring, saying that El-Shaimy did not know anything about the murder plot.
In October 2024, Justice Robertson Wright described aspects of the crown case as "verging on the speculative" when he granted bail.
Justice Coleman agreed with his colleague's assessment, dismissing the detention application and leaving El-Shaimy out on bail.
Shadow attorney-general Alister Henskens told AAP this showed the transition of private monitoring out of the system had been botched.
"Clearly the government's public electronic monitoring is failing because the court should've been given the option of putting this person on public monitoring in place of private monitoring," he said.
El-Shaimy has not yet entered formal pleas.
His matter will return to Burwood Local Court on September 10.
Australian Associated Press
