Amy Mek
A 21-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, who has been found guilty of murdering an aspiring Royal Marine, had previously killed two people in Serbia before posing as a child to gain entry into Britain.
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai stabbed Thomas Roberts twice in the chest and abdomen during a heated argument over an electric scooter in Bournemouth, Dorset, in the early hours of March 12, 2022
Mr. Roberts, 21, who dreamed of joining the Marines, had been acting as the “peacemaker” after Abdulrahimzai got into an argument with his friend James Medway.
The confrontation, which lasted only 24 seconds, saw Mr. Roberts slap Abdulrahimzai in the face. The Afghani then revealed a knife he had hidden between in the rousers he was wearing and stabbed Mr. Roberts twice before running away into nearby woodland.
He buried the knife in the woods before burning the trousers, jacket, and Afghan flag he was wearing as a scarf.
He dropped his mobile phone as he fled, and it was traced to his home address.
On the night of the stabbing, the Afghani has previously headbutted another man:
Abdulrahimzai was granted asylum in the UK in 2019 after claiming to be an unaccompanied 14-year-old fleeing the Taliban and was placed with a host family and given a place at a secondary location.
But it can now be revealed that he lied about his age and was, in fact, an adult who killed two fellow migrants in Serbia on his way to the UK.
He had been handed a 20-year prison sentence in his absence for killing the two people in Serbia but was granted entry to the UK after telling authorities he was a 14-year-old schoolboy whose parents had been killed by the Taliban.
He was convicted in his absence of the crimes but could still figure out a way to flee and go to the UK.
He first went to Serbia through Pakistan and Iran in October 2015 before arriving in Norway later that month with a friend, reports Express & Star.
Abdulrahimzai then left Norway and spent some time in Italy and Serbia. He applied for asylum in Norway, but when his application was refused in December 2019, he left out of fear of being deported back to Afghanistan.
In the same month, he arrived in the UK in Poole, Dorset, and told the authorities he was 16 when he was arrested, but the court has since determined that he is now 21.
The Daily Mail detailed his crimes in Serbia,
Prosecutor Nic Lobbenberg KC said: ‘Between July 31 and August 1 in 2018, during the evening in Dobrinci – near the motorway – he murdered two people also from Afghanistan.
‘The name he was using was Huan Yasin.’
Mr Lobbenberg KC said Afghans were staying in a shed in the area when an argument broke out over trafficking.
‘The defendant arrived and an argument broke about the business of transporting migrants.
‘He was armed with an automatic assault rifle, two others had pistols… one of the group said ‘who is the smuggler?’ and then aimed their weapons at the victims
‘He shot 18 rounds of a 7.62 calibre Kalashnikov.
‘It’s a military weapon with great firepower and rapid rate of fire.
‘The range of the shooting was said to be relatively short, three to 10 metres.’
Mr Lobbenberg KC said the killer did not move position and fired six rounds into each victim, with some bullets hitting their heads.
‘An enormous number found their target’, he said.
Abdulrahimzai, who fled Serbia, was later identified by a taxi driver who drove him away from the scene, it was heard.
The taxi driver said he was ‘sweating’ and ‘showing signs of anxiety’, with the court also hearing he got the weapon from ‘gypsies’.
In November 2020 he was convicted of murder in his absence by a Serbian court, having been wanted in the country since the attacks.
He was understood to be 15 at the time of the killings, it was heard.
The foster mother of the Afghani recalled he was a teenage asylum seeker – before the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character attacked her and ‘thought he had the right to carry a knife.’
Kate Lewis, CPS Wessex District Crown Prosecutor, said: “Abdulrahimzai is a violent and dangerous man who killed Thomas Roberts, a young man with his whole life ahead of him, in what was a completely senseless and vicious act.
“The jury heard evidence from witnesses at the scene, as well as CCTV and forensic evidence, that made it abundantly clear that Abdulrahimzai was guilty of murder.
The Home Office is now facing serious questions about why Abdulrahimzai was allowed to enter the UK and what checks were carried out on his age and background.
Add comment