Two men no longer face a retrial over a fatal shooting at a Sydney service station in 2003 because prosecutors have withdrawn murder charges.
Ramzi Aouad and Nasaem El-Zayet were jailed for life in 2006 after being found guilty of murdering 25-year-old Ahmed Fahda at a Punchbowl service station.
But last year the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal quashed their convictions and ordered a retrial.
It noted new evidence from a prominent Muslim cleric about a conversation he had with a key crown witness, Bassam Said, who told the jury he saw the accused men shoot the victim up to 20 times.
During the appeal it emerged that Mr Said told Sheikh Al-Hilali in 2004 that he didn’t recognise the killers and had been pressured by police to say that he did.
In the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, prosecutors told Acting Justice Graham Barr the murder charges against Aouad and El-Zayet were being withdrawn.
But despite this, the men will not be released from jail as they are serving life terms for the 2003 murders of Ziad Razzak and Mervat Nemra.
In February, Mohammed Fahda – brother of the shooting victim Ahmed Fahda – was jailed for at least 14 years for the shooting murder of Abdul Darwiche at another Sydney service station in 2009.
The crown alleged he had been motivated by “revenge and hatred” in killing Mr Darwiche and believed members of the Darwiche family were responsible for his brother’s murder.
The jury was told of a long-running feud and of a number of murders and shootings involving members of the Razzak, Fahda and Darwiche families.
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