A violent teenage bully who fatally stabbed an Afghan refugee with a Rambo knife has been jailed for a decade.
The 17-year-old boy plunged the lethal weapon into the chest of 18-year-old Hazrat Wali on the Craneford Way playing fields in Twickenham in front of horrified children.
The murder was carried out with a 20-centimeter weapon that the teenager had hidden in some bushes near a justice of the peace, where hours before he had been convicted of possession of an identical knife.
Hazrat came under fire after he complained about the teen making racist comments about girls in hijabs. He was stabbed in the chest, with the blade piercing 10 cm into his liver.
The up-and-coming cricketer, from Notting Hill, died of massive blood loss an hour after the stabbing on October 12, 2021.
Afghan refugee Hazrat Wali, 18, was fatally stabbed on October 12, 2021 by a teenager armed with a 20cm Rambo knife.
The young man admitted to wielding a knife within hours of leaving a magistrates’ court, but denied that he intended to cause really serious harm to student Mr. Wali.
A jury at the Old Bailey found him not guilty of murder but guilty of the lesser alternative charge of manslaughter.
The court heard how the teenager was caught with a knife in the Southside shopping center in Wandsworth two months before the murder, on August 5, 2021.
He pleaded guilty to that offense and received a juvenile rehabilitation order at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on the morning of the murder.
Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC sentenced him to 10 years and eight months’ detention at the Old Bailey on Friday.
She told the young man: ‘When you stabbed Hazrat, he was unarmed and you were outnumbered by you and your friends.’
She said he made the “deliberate decision to carry a fearsome weapon” that day, adding: “You told the jury that you brought the knife to the magistrates’ court.” You left it in some bushes outside and picked it up after the hearing was over.
The court heard how Hazrat had fled war-torn Afghanistan at the age of 12. His twin brother was separated from him and deported to Afghanistan while they were traveling in Europe. He finally arrived in July of last year to discover that his brother had been stabbed to death.
Hazrat (pictured), an up-and-coming cricketer from Notting Hill, London, had been spending time with friends at Craneford Way Playing Fields in Twickenham when he was fatally stabbed. He had fled Afghanistan to the UK in search of a ‘better life’, a court heard
The defendant went to a nearby McDonald’s with his friends after the murder and assaulted an employee of the restaurant.
Earlier that day, he had received a rehabilitation order for possession of a Rambo knife.
The teenager had also been expelled from the university and schools due to his violent behavior and was placed in a student referral unit. Since he killed Hazrat, he has been convicted of prison violence after being convicted of robbery in 2020.
He glorified and boasted of his violence in phone calls, the court heard.
Children playing rugby on the fields saw the stabbing and staff provided first aid and recorded part of the incident. A student recalled that the defendant said something about girls in hijabs and Hazrat saying it was racist.
The 17-year-old killer claimed that he had acted in self-defense and believed that Hazrat was also armed.
Wearing glasses and a Nike sweater, he showed no emotion when he was jailed today.
“This senseless loss of life was caused by his decision to carry a knife,” Judge Plaschkes said. ‘There was no good reason for you to have a big black knife hidden in your clothes.’
The judge said his conviction for possession of a Rambo knife was “the clearest warning that you shouldn’t carry a knife.”
“You chose to ignore that warning,” he said.
The killer, who was 16 at the time of the stabbing, claimed he had acted in self-defense (in photo, police at the scene of the attack)
Hazrat’s older brother, Mohamed Ashuk, who has lived in the UK for 20 years, told the court his brother came to London from Afghanistan “in the hope of a safer life”.
He added: “He was settling in to university and enjoying his new life in London and wanted to study and become an engineer.”
Ashuk said his children are afraid to leave the house for fear of being stabbed.
The court heard that Hazrat’s twin brother was “traumatized” by the news of his death when he arrived in the UK.
“He thought he would meet his brother after traveling here from Afghanistan,” Ashuk said.
The older brother continued: “This was not an accident, but a deliberate and violent attack that has left me and my family in a state of devastation.”
The court heard that Hazrat had been sitting in the park with Mariam Ahmadazai, a friend, when the defendant and five other teenagers approached them.
Prosecutor Jacob Hallam KC said one of the girls in the group made a comment that the couple “looked good together”. The defendant, then 16 years old, began to curse Hazrat.
“Hazrat stood up and approached the defendant, and the defendant said, ‘Come to me then,’ and pushed Hazrat away,” Hallam said.
The teenage defendant, who cannot be identified due to his age, was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter. He now he has been jailed for 10 years. In the photo, the playing fields of Craneford Way in Twickenham
The defendant then pulled out a black knife, with “zig-zag lines” across the top, the prosecutor said.
“It’s no wonder, then, that when faced with that, Hazrat thought he needed help,” Mr Hallam added.
‘Here was someone who had come up to him, insulted him and who was armed with that knife. The only thing in Hazrat’s hand was a mobile phone.
Hazrat was stabbed on the right side of his body. Mortally wounded, Mr. Wali grabbed the defendant’s jacket and asked, ‘Why did you stab me?’
The killer ran over a footbridge onto Marsh Farm Road and tossed his blue jacket over a fence. Emergency services attended but were unable to save Mr. Wali’s life.
Defense attorney Garry Green said his client’s life was characterized by “cumulative disadvantage”.
He said he had been supervised by social services since he was two years old as a result of witnessing domestic violence as a child.
He attended several schools before being home schooled and placed in a student reference unit.
Green said he had been exploited by a County Lines drug gang and had been stabbed as a result. He argued that it was a case of excessive use of force in self-defense.
In calls from prison, the defendant said he was acting in self-defense, saying it was “just anger” and the stabbing was “a way to release his anger,” the court heard.
He told the court that Mr. Wali had hit him with his head and that he freaked out when he heard him call for a friend to “back him up”.
The 17-year-old denied and was acquitted of murder, but was found guilty of manslaughter.
He admitted to arguing and assault causing actual bodily harm in connection with the incident at McDonald’s.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the first part of which will be served in a juvenile delinquent institution.