Sydney lawyer charged over kidnap and torture loses bid to keep identity secret

A Sydney lawyer with links to the notorious Alameddine crime network has lost a bid to keep his identity secret after being charged over a violent kidnapping in which a man was allegedly held for ransom and tortured.

Parramatta solicitor Sylvan Singh fronted Liverpool Local Court on Wednesday, charged with a string of offences over the incident in Granville last November.

Police allege a 31-year-old was abducted by three males when he stopped his car to make a phone call on November 23. He was allegedly bound with cable ties before being driven away by the trio.

The man was allegedly taken to a St Marys property, where he was tortured and assaulted. His brother was contacted and paid a ransom the group demanded, but the 31-year-old was not released, and an additional ransom was demanded, police said.

Police said the trio arranged to meet the man’s brother about 5.45am on November 24, when an altercation took place and the 31-year-old was able to escape. He was taken to hospital and treated for injuries including a black eye, cuts to his head and a deep wound to his left hand. Police allege that Singh was involved in the planning and directing of the Granville kidnapping via encrypted messaging apps.

Strike Force Cubellas detectives charged Singh with two counts of knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group, wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, supplying prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis, supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, and taking or detaining a person in company with intent to hold them for ransom over his alleged role in a kidnapping at Granville last year.

Police allege the kidnapping and torture was filmed on a mobile phone and used in the ransom demands. Three other men have previously been charged and remain before the courts.

Singh’s barrister, Peter Lange, had argued for his client’s identity to be suppressed because of concerns for his safety because of the links, the court heard, Singh has to the Alameddine crime network.

Opposing the non-publication order, Nine’s executive counsel, Larina Alick, said the publication of media articles on Wednesday morning identifying Singh meant the “cat was out of the bag” in relation to his identity.

Magistrate Andrew Miller rejected the application, noting that no specific threat had been made to Singh beyond generic threats that “organised crime networks may exact retribution on those who cross them”.

Miller granted Singh bail despite prosecutor Adam Boggian arguing that Singh was at risk of absconding and that no bail conditions imposed by the court could mitigate that risk. Boggian told the court Singh was a risk of interfering with witnesses in the police investigation, that he had “strong links to criminal associates”, and that he had a “level of seniority in the organisation” allegedly behind the kidnapping.

“This person shows the willingness to stand over people, to threaten people, to prevent them from going to police,” he said.

Singh’s father, Ajay Singh, the principal solicitor of Redline Legal, where Singh is employed, sat in the court throughout his son’s appearance. He did not comment on the charges against his son when approached by the Herald. Singh’s family offered a $250,000 surety to help secure his freedom. Singh, wearing a hoodie as he appeared in the court via video link from a nearby police station, remained handcuffed and silent throughout Wednesday’s proceedings.

In May, Singh survived a shooting linked to an ongoing feud within the Alameddine network that was sparked when a senior member defected to form a rival crime syndicate. The court heard Singh has links to the Alameddine network. His charges are not related to the ongoing feud, or the May shooting.

Singh was shot in the arm and shoulder in the attack. His associate, underworld figure Dawood Zakaria, initially survived a gunshot wound to the head, but died in hospital several days later, as NSW Police launched Taskforce Falcon to combat the violence linked to the Alameddine feud.

Several people have since been charged with the joint criminal enterprise murder of Zakaria and the attempted murder of Singh.

Detective Acting Superintendent Andrew Marks, commander of the robbery and serious crime squad, said Singh had been linked to a “sophisticated” drug supply operation dating back to 2022.

Marks alleged communications obtained by police showed Singh intended to kidnap or kill a drug runner who he suspected had stolen drugs.

“The offences were very organised, and they were very violent crimes,” Marks said.

Marks would not comment on whether Singh knew his co-accused through his work as a lawyer. Investigations into the kidnapping and broader drug syndicate are ongoing.

Earlier, a police appeal revealed the spine-chilling moment Zakaria and other organised crime figures were targeted in a brazen daylight shooting in the first of a series of tit-for-tat shootings between the Alameddine network and its former members on February 18.

Footage released by police shows the masked and hooded man, dressed in dark clothing and wearing white gloves, with only his eyes visible as he aims his gun at his target from the window of a grey Audi SUV.

The man fired several shots at Zakaria and the other men standing on the street. No one was injured in the shooting, but three vehicles and a nearby building were hit by bullets.

CCTV shows a vehicle, believed to be the Audi involved in the shooting, parked on Windarra Street in Narwee before it is set alight.

Detective Acting Superintendent Jason Smith, the acting commander of Taskforce Falcon, said the incident was “one of a string of really disturbing” public-place shootings.

“To have shots being fired in a popular beachside location is just something that the people of NSW should not have to put up with,” he said.

Smith said the men targeted had not co-operated with police, triggering Wednesday’s public appeal.

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