John Silvester’s The Age column week was written in the aftermath of the Sulieman Abdulrahim gangland killing. His report “Dead man walking: Why ‘The Punisher’ refused to go into hiding” was published in The Age 29 January 2025 (paywalled). It had a punchline I liked. John Silvester is Australia’s leading crime journalist and the co-author of Chopper books and the Underbelly series. And he does like a bad pun.
Suleiman (Sam) “The Punisher” Abdulrahim had been shot and killed in an underground car park of serviced apartments in Preston in Melbourne’s inner-north about 10.30am on 28 January 2025.
Silvester wrote that “it was only the location and timing that would need to be filled in on his death certificate”. He called Abdulrahim an “eternal optimist” in thinking that he would evade the contract for his murder, thought to be a million dollars. Reports suggest the police had given Abdulrahim protection options which he had refused.
Abdulrahim had made many enemies after his involvement in the shooting death of Kadir “KD” Ors in 2016 by a rival drug trafficker George Marrogi. There was a strong belief within the underworld that Abdulrahim had lured Ors to the scene after it was alleged in court.
Abdulrahim had survived several shooting attempts. One in suburban Melbourne in May last year (2024) came two years after a murder attempt outside a cemetery. There had also been several arson attacks directed at him.
Abdulrahim’s CV (criminal vitae)
Abdulrahim was a professional boxer (with the nickname “The Punisher”) and an ex-Mongols bikie. The boxing image used is from Abdulrahim’s Instagram feed which gives a strong hint at his criminal life.
The 32-year-old’s criminal CV was not unusual. He had youth offender convictions, before becoming involved in serious offending including brawls and gun offences in his 20s. In 2018, he was sentenced to more than three years in prison for culpable driving causing death (speeding up to 110km/h in a 60km/h zone when he loses control of his Ferrari Spider in Reservoir before hitting three cars, killing 88-year-old Muriel Hulett) and charges relating to possession of methamphetamines. But a person close to him writing on social media stated “behind the tough guy image he had a heart“.
Criminal Who’s Who
Silvester wrote that the “good news” from the murder would be that the investigation of possible perpetrators would provide the police with a comprehensive list of underworld figures that may be behind the murder. The “bad news” is that Abdulrahim had created so many enemies in the underworld that the list of potential murderers will be “long and dangerous”. Silvester suggests, that in Abdulrahim’s case, ‘the list is a dark version of Who’s Who, or in modern terms, “Wicked-Pedia”’.