Australian biker charged with airport murder

The head of Australia's Comanchero motorcycle gang was yesterday charged with murder over a deadly brawl fought in front of horrified passengers at Sydney airport, police said.

Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, 29, had already been charged with affray over the gang violence, which erupted between the Comancheros and members of the rival Hell's Angels group at Sydney's domestic terminal in March.

Anthony Zervas, 29, was bludgeoned to death with a crowd control barrier pole during the fracas involving up to 20 bikers as passengers at the check-in counter could only look on.

Police said they arrested Mr Hawi at his home yesterday and charged him with the murder of Mr Zervas, the brother of a Hells Angels gang member.

Statements had been taken from "several hundred" witnesses, and forensic evidence would also be used in the case against Mr Hawi, said Andrew Scipione, the commissioner of police for New South Wales state.

"We said that we will clean up this murder incident at the airport, and today we've moved towards that," Mr Scipione said, adding that the murder charge had been laid on advice from the state's chief prosecutor.

Mr Zervas' grieving mother, Frederika Bromwich, confronted Mr Hawi's family as the suspect was brought before Sydney's Kogarah Local Court.

"May you rot in hell and get all the pain you gave me," she shouted, spitting at Mr Hawi's relatives.

"Even my spit is worth more than Mick Hawi," she said.

Mick Keelty, head of the police force which patrols the airport, blamed faulty security cameras at the terminal for the delayed response of officers on the day, who took 15 minutes to arrive on the scene.

"As I said at the time, the cameras at the airport are not under the control of the Australian Federal Police," said Mr Keelty, following the laying of the murder charge.

Tough new anti-terrorism style laws outlawing biker gangs were passed in the wake of the violence, which sparked reprisal shootings and bomb threats.

A national government review of security at the airport, Australia's largest, was also promised following allegations the bikers had been agitated both on their flight and in the airport for some time before the brawl began.

Police have said they were not aware of the violence until a terrified passenger at the airport made an emergency call.

Experts say the biker violence stems from turf wars over drug distribution, particularly methamphetamine or "ice."

The recent clashes raised fears that long-simmering tensions between gangs such as the Hell's Angels, Comancheros, Bandidos and Rebels could explode into a full-scale biker war.

Australia's worst outbreak of biker violence was a 1984 shootout between the Bandidos and Comancheros in the car park of a Sydney pub, in which six gang members and a 15-year-old girl died.