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He joked about a murder. And it was all caught on the bugs police had planted in the bedroom, living room and garden of his George St, Guildford home.
Those bugs collected an astonishing 124,000 secret recordings, all monitored inside State Crime headquarters in Parramatta, as multiple times Batak retold the story of how he had a hand in the shooting of John Odisho on April 2, 2019 inside Odisho’s home at Five Dock.
The recordings were a goldmine for police, who were later able to convict Batak, Cengiz Coskun, and Batak’s wife Hawraa Al Kahi over Mr Odisho’s death.
They can be revealed for the first time after suppression orders were lifted on two Supreme Court trials.
Batak knew Mr Odisho and his flatmate Sargon Odisho had drugs in their East St flat, and of a planned “drug rip” to steal the drugs.
Within the earshot of numerous bugs, Batak for months after would tell mates in his own words “exactly what happened” on April 2, 2019 when two men burst into the East Street flat, sparking a gunfight.
But Batak was not actually there. He was recorded saying an urgent call of nature stopped him from joining Cengiz Coskun on the drug rip that turned fatal.
“I was gonna go with him,” Batak begins in one of the 124,000 secret recordings.
“I’ll tell you exactly what happened, I stood there for ten minutes thinking about everything that was explained to me … I was actually persuaded to go with him.
“But I had to chuck a shit, I could not hold it too. We were getting everything ready and I had to chuck a shit.
“I’m gonna go upstairs and I’m gonna s. t … next morning ask me what I head on the radio ‘Five Dock shooting’.
“I pulled over and had a cigarette and thought about it bro. I was this close, literally this close to going.”
QUANTUM TRANSPORT REPRESENT BROTHER
While he never fired a single bullet or was even present at the shooting, Batak’s big mouth revealed to police his intimate involvement.
Mr Odisho and his drug dealer housemate Sargon Odisho were being scoped out long before bullets were fired in their humble East...