- The family of the deceased basketball player shared their grief
- Alier Riak was stabbed to death in Melbourne in March 2022
- His attackers pleaded guilty to murder.
The South Sudanese community lost a “beacon of hope” when a promising young basketball player was stabbed to death in an unprovoked street attack, his family says.
Alier Riak was celebrating his 23rd birthday on March 13, 2022, when Teamrat brothers Kassa and Aron Gebregiorgis and four other men ambushed him and his friends.
They first targeted Riak’s brother Kuol, beating and stabbing him on Bourke Street in Melbourne’s city centre.
Mr Riak tried to defend his brother when the attackers turned on him and chased him into a nearby park.
Kassa and Gebregiorgis repeatedly stabbed Mr Riak in the chest and leg before he staggered towards his friends and then collapsed in the street.
CCTV footage shows Gebregiorgis calmly walking away from the scene and removing his bloody jumper, while Kassa and the rest of his group remain close to Mr Riak as police and then paramedics arrive.
Mr Riak died on the way to hospital, while his brother Kuol was taken to the Alfred with four stab wounds to his back and arms.
Gebregiorgis and Kassa were arrested and charged on March 18 for the violent attack.
The family of the young basketball player shared their pain after his death
Alier Riak was stabbed to death by thugs in central Melbourne in March 2022
Both pleaded guilty to murder in the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday, while Kassa also admitted recklessly causing injury to Kuol Riak.
Fourteen victim impact statements from Alier Riak’s family and South Sudanese community leaders were read out to the court.
They described how Mr Riak was a promising young basketball player who was due to start a new professional contract in Darwin in the days after his death.
He was also a mentor to WA’s South Sudanese community, having lived there since emigrating with his family as a child.
“Alier was a role model and a beacon of hope for his community,” his mother Elizabeth Malek said in her statement.
“Our family was once happy but has been devastated by this loss.”
Kassa’s only explanation for the killing was that he “heard something he didn’t like about something that had happened to an associate,” his attorney Ashley Halphen told the court.
The 21-year-old had been released from prison on a community corrections order a week before the attack, he said.
Aron Gebregiorgis (pictured) and Teamrat Kassa pleaded guilty to murder
He said the killing was not premeditated and that Kassa was a young man who acted impulsively under the influence of Xanax and alcohol.
His brother Gebregiorgis also abused prescription drugs and cannabis before the killing, attorney Sam Norton said.
He said there was no explanation to justify his client’s conduct, but he pleaded guilty and showed remorse.
Gebregiorgis turned himself in to police before being charged and has since written a letter of apology to the court, Norton said.
Kassa also submitted a letter of apology, but prosecutor Neill Hutton noted that both statements were recently written.
“It’s a bit of a convenient regret – those letters weren’t delivered 12 or 18 months ago,” he told the court.
Mr Hutton said the killing was a completely unprovoked attack on a group that was unarmed and trying to retreat.
Judge John Champion noted that the seriousness of the crimes was increased because Kassa and Gebregiorgis pursued their victims.
“A minute or two destroys everyone’s life for life,” the judge said.
He will sentence both of them at a later date.
Outside court, Riak’s father, James, said the family was hoping for the best outcome from the judge.
“We are really very sad,” she told reporters. “(Alier) was the icon of our family.”
