Pubdate: Sat, 10 Feb 2001
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact:  GPO Box 3771, Sydney NSW 2001
Fax: 61-(0)2-9282 3492
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Forum: http://forums.fairfax.com.au/
Author: Neil Mercer

DRUG DEALER TELLS ALL, GOES 'SCOT-FREE'

A protected witness admitted yesterday he had got away "scot-free" from 
serious drug charges after agreeing to give evidence against Michael 
Kanaan, who is accused of a double murder outside the Five Dock Hotel.

The witness, who has been given the pseudonym Alan Rossini, has told the 
Supreme Court that in June, 1999, he was arrested and charged with cocaine 
dealing.

He had been called to the NSW Crime Commission the next month and decided 
to tell all he knew about the Five Dock shooting the previous year. He 
agreed with Mr Winston Terracini, SC, for Kanaan, that by co-operating with 
the authorities, "I was hoping I would get some help, yes".

Mr Rossini was giving evidence against Kanaan, 25, who has pleaded not 
guilty to the murder of Adam Wright and Michael Hurle and the attempted 
murder of Ron Singleton outside the Five Dock Hotel on July 17, 1998.

Mr Rossini told the court on Thursday that he had been with Mr Kanaan in a 
car that had pulled up outside the pub on the night of the shooting and 
that he had seen Mr Kanaan holding a gun and firing it.

Yesterday, under cross-examination, he agreed with Mr Terracini that the 
cocaine charges had been withdrawn.

Q. "Despite the fact that you knew you were guilty?"

A. "Yes, sir."

Q. "As a result you went scot-free?"

A. "Eventually, yes, but not because of the [Crime] Commission."

Mr Rossini was questioned about different versions of events he had given 
to the commission and later the police, but he denied there were "large 
inconsistencies" between some of his statements.

He agreed with Mr Terracini, though, that when first questioned by the 
Crime Commission, he had said there were four people in the car.

Q. "Did you tell the Crime Commission anything about a fifth person?"

A. "No sir."

Mr Rossini has told the court he later remembered that there were five 
people in the car on the night - himself, Michael Kanaan, Shadi Derbas, 
Bassim Kazzi and a youth around 17 years of age.

Mr Terracini: "You got wrong the number of people in the car when you were 
interviewed by the commission. Did you just forget?"

Mr Rossini: "No, at that time I remembered Michael, Shadi, Bassim and 
myself, I forgot about that young guy that was there at that time."

Q. "What I am suggesting to you is there were only four people?"

A. "No, sir."

Q. "And the accused, Mr Kanaan, was not one of them?"

A. "He was, sir."

Mr Rossini also agreed he had made a mistake when he initially told 
investigators he and Bassim Kazzi had dropped their phones at the scene of 
the shooting. He later said it was him and Kanaan.

He told the court he did not know the youth who had been sitting in the 
back and had never seen him again.

He said he was not worried about the youth going to the police. "He would 
have been shot if he'd done that."

The youth was "one of Shadi's boys". "Shadi bringing this guy is telling us 
that this guy is OK."

Mr Rossini rejected Mr Terracini's suggestion he might be protecting the youth.

The trial continues.
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