"Samad claimed he acted in self-defence during the incident on London's busy Edgware Road. However, he was motivated by his belief that Mr Abdi had been involved in kidnapping and torturing a friend two days earlier, Judge Lynn Tayton told the Old Bailey on Thursday. Samad was motivated by revenge and acted with extreme aggression and persistence, the judge said. She sentenced Samad to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 27 years for Mr Abdi's murder."
"On 2 June, Samad's friend Soufian Chafi was kidnapped and tortured, with footage of the attack posted on social media showing him naked and humiliated, the judge told the court. Though there was no evidence Mr Abdi was involved, Samad and his co-defendant Mohamad Mahmoud El-Hazzaa, 27, from Westminster, both believed that he was. On 4 June, Samad was on Edgware Road in the front passenger seat of a Seat Leon, which was being driven by El-Hazzaa, the court heard."
"Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC previously told jurors: It is, you might have thought, like something from the Wild West. Mohamed Abdi clearly saw him coming and got out. The two of them then started to fight Mohamed Abdi was also armed with a knife. But within a few seconds of the start of their fighting, the defendant gained a crucial advantage."
Awad Abdel Samad, 24, fatally stabbed 19-year-old Mohamed Abdi on Edgware Road, central London, on 4 June 2024. Samad claimed self-defence but believed Abdi had been involved in the kidnapping and torture of his friend Soufian Chafi on 2 June. Footage of Chafi’s assault was posted on social media; there was no evidence linking Abdi, yet Samad and co-defendant Mohamad Mahmoud El-Hazzaa believed he was involved. The confrontation started after Abdi pulled his Porsche Cayenne behind the defendants’ Seat Leon; both cars stopped and Samad exited armed with a knife. Judge Lynn Tayton described the attack as revengeful, aggressive and persistent and imposed a life sentence with a 27-year minimum term.
Read at www.independent.co.uk
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