He stopped for cigarettes moments before a deadly ambush. It was the clue police needed
Zivan 'Stipe' Radmanovic, 32, died in a hail of bullets in a late-night ambush last weekend when two men wearing helmets burst into his rented villa in Munggu, in the Badung district, and then fled on motorbikes.
Also shot and beaten was Sanar Ghanim, 34, the former partner of Danielle Stephens, who is the stepdaughter of slain underworld figure Carl Williams.
Police say the three Australians accused of the shooting bought a sledgehammer to break their way into the villa, and rented two other motorbikes from a different store in the area for their getaway. They then allegedly used and dumped two cars to get out of Bali, before trying to flee the country to Cambodia via Singapore.
One man, 27-year-old Sydney plumber Darcy Francesco Jenson, only made it as far as Jakarta airport before border officials swooped. A day later, 23-year-old convicted drug dealer Mevlut Coskun was detained in Singapore, and Paea I Middlemore Tupou, 26, was nabbed in Cambodia, with the help of Interpol. All three have now been brought back to Bali and charged with premeditated murder, police said, as well as the 'embezzlement' or theft of several rental vehicles.
A local Bali lawyer who said he was soon to act for Tupou told reporters he was asking police to urgently release 'the chains that attach on the foot of our future client because it's really hurt on his feet currently'. Tupou was seen arriving in Bali, bound by the feet and ankles to a wheelchair on Tuesday night after being arrested in Cambodia.
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The Australian government said it is 'urgently seeking further information from local authorities' after the arrests of the Australian men, who could face the death penalty if tried and convicted in Indonesia.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia always opposed the death penalty and her department was now seeking a briefing from Jakarta and 'providing some consular assistance' to the men.
Bali police say the attack was targeted and planned, with others 'likely' involved, and they will investigate a possible connection to Melbourne's gangland wars.
Ghanim, a former kickboxer with known underworld associates, had been in Bali for a few months, staying with Radmanovic, their partners, and another person at the villa. More than a decade ago in Melbourne, he served jail time for his involvement in two non-fatal shootings, as well as drug offences.
He was rushed to hospital after the attack in Bali with bullets still embedded in his body, and released on Sunday with a bandaged leg, though police said he had yet to cooperate with investigators as he recovered.
Radmanovic's wife said she had been woken by gunfire and her husband's screams just after midnight Saturday in their locked villa. As she hid terrified under the bedcovers, she saw one man shoot Radmanovic in the bathroom.
Other witnesses reported that at least one of the men had spoken in an Australian accent, complaining his bike wouldn't start, before fleeing the scene, and the men's voices were also caught by CCTV in the area.
The three Australians now being questioned by Indonesian detectives do not appear to be major players in the underworld back home, according to sources in Australia, though Sydneysiders Jenson and Coskun have racked up some small-time criminal offences.
On Thursday, Bali police closed the gates of their headquarters against a growing press throng as they pored over evidence.
In the Indonesian legal system, being named a suspect or 'tersangka' is the equivalent of being charged with a crime, ahead of a formal case being handed to prosecutors. Bali police earlier said they could ask their Australian counterparts for assistance only once suspects had been named.
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The Australian Federal Police would not comment on whether Indonesia had now requested its co-operation, but said no one had been arrested in Australia over the Bali ambush.
Any request for cooperation by Indonesia would trigger a tightly controlled process in Australia, governed by long-standing federal police guidelines on crimes that carry the death penalty, an AFP spokesman said earlier.
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