Bilal El Rafei Biography                                              Bilal El Rafei Wiki

One afternoon when two brothers wanted a cigarette, they ran to get the passenger seat of their cousin’s truck. Khaled El-Rafihi finished second and soon after suffered fatal injuries.

His cousin Bilal El Rafei, 22, was sentenced to a vicious driving attempt that resulted in his death in Campbellfield, north of Melbourne, in March 2019.

When two brothers wanted a smoke one afternoon they raced each other to the passenger seat of their cousin’s ute.

Khaled El-Rafihi got there second and suffered fatal injuries moments later https://t.co/8g2tGNgbGP

— Gus McCubbing (@GusMcCubbing) February 12, 2021

The deceased’s brother, Fadel El Rafihi, told the court that they wanted to buy cigarettes at a nearby store and that they would rather drive than go.

“You know how brothers fight in the front seat: we fell into the front seat and I got there first,” he said.

Video surveillance was played and showed Khaled falling backwards as the truck pulled away before returning to see how the man was doing.

“We thought it was a joke, so we walked 10 or 15 meters and then we found out it wasn’t,” Fadel said, adding that the Outé was at about 20 km / h.

He said no one saw Khaled climb onto the bed of the truck.

A police officer who attended the scene, Samuel Field, told Bilal: “Don’t see his cousin chasing his sandals and trying to grab onto the back door.”

The accused driver’s attorney, Leighton Gwynn, said the dead man could only have sat on the roof of the truck for “a second or two,” if he did.

Bilal has pleaded not guilty and is expected to appear in Victoria County Court on March 12 for a hearing.