The man acquitted of a shooting murder in a western Sydney smash repair shop will remain behind bars on charges that he smuggled drugs concealed in shower heads in to Australia.
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Fadi El Jamal, 40, who was acquitted by a jury of the shooting murder of Mark Nicholls in Condell Park in 2004, was denied bail in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday.
El Jamal was arrested at Sydney's international international airport last year as he was about to board a flight out of the country booked under a false name.
The court heard that the arrest followed a long investigation involving police from Australia and Thailand into a drug importation syndicate with players in both countries.
Thai police allegedly seized five kilograms of methamphetamine set to be smuggled into Australia concealed in goods that were being imported, including shower heads.
El Jamal was charged with possessing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and importing commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and was taken into protective custody at Long Bay jail.
But the court heard that there was currently no admissible evidence of the nature, weight and purity of the seized substance due to delays in gaining a sample from Thai authorities. Only presumptive tests have as yet been taken by the Thai police.
El Jamal's defence barrister Philip Strickland, SC, told the court that there were other plausible possibilities as to what the substance could have been, including that it was an imitation drug substituted by an importer trying to rip off other members of the syndicate.
"On the material, your honour could not conclude that this is an overwhelming case when there is no admissible evidence," Mr Strickland said in application for his client to be released on bail.
"No material that has been served on us, or in this court, to prove that there is five kilograms of methamphetamine."
Mr Strickland described El Jamal's attempt to flee the country when he learnt about the police investigation as a "spontaneous and panicked reaction" that was unlikely to be repeated.
The court heard that $1.3 million could be put up to secure his release, and El Jamal's mother would pay for him to be electronically monitored.
But Crown prosecutor Dimitrios Kapeleris said there was an unacceptable risk that El Jamal would attempt to flee the country again, and that ties to his mother, wife, and children had not stopped him previously.
The AFP officer in charge of the investigation told the court that officers hoped to receive approval to travel to Thailand in the coming week.
Justice Stephen Campbell ruled that El Jamal should remain behind bars, saying he was satisfied there would be enough evidence for the jury to consider by a trial occurred and that the Crown's case was strong.
In El Jamal's trial of 2004, Crown prosecutors argued that he had shot Mr Nicholls five times in the head after their relationship had soured. El Jamal's case was that was the intended target of the shooting after he had been outed as a police informant. Since his acquittal of murder, he has spent time in custody on charges relating to drug supply.
