twenty-five years in prison for the murderer

The teenage murderer of a 27-year-old Afghan refugee, killed in 2022 in Colmar after an altercation over the noise of a scooter, was sentenced, Friday, October 11, to twenty-five years of imprisonment by the Court of assizes for minors in Haut-Rhin.

The death, in August 2022, of Abdul Qayyum Ahmadzai, an Afghan refugee in France since 2016 and a worker at Stellantis in Mulhouse, aroused great emotion.

The sentences handed down by the courts are in accordance with what the Attorney General, Jean Richert, requested on Thursday: twenty-five years of imprisonment against the main accused, aged 17 at the time of the facts, and twenty years against his co-accused (18 years old at the time), who had handled and unlocked the weapon before giving it to the teenager. Both were prosecuted for murder, violence in a meeting and illegal possession of a weapon.

As requested by the Advocate General, the minority excuse was rejected by the court with regard to the youngest accused, who thus faced thirty years of imprisonment. The second boy and two other defendants faced life imprisonment. These two young men, aged 20 and 21 at the time, were sentenced to ten years in prison, twice as much as requested by the prosecution. Tried for complicity in murder and violence in a meeting, they would have supported the attackers during a brawl that occurred before the shooting.

Already convicted seven times

On August 14, 2022, a group of Afghans bothered at the bottom of a building by the noise of a scooter asked young people to move away. The latter returned with a weapon and opened fire after a fight, fatally hitting Abdul Qayyum Ahmadzai in the chest. The refugee was married and the father of four children.

At the end of a ten-day hunt, the shooter and his friend who gave him the weapon were arrested: one in Sarcelles (Val-d’Oise), the other in Colmar.

The murderer, now aged 19, has already been convicted seven times, for drug trafficking, theft, damage, and even recently for contempt, rebellion and damage to property intended for the public utility. After a procedural error leading to his release in September 2023, he returned to prison a year later following a conviction for new facts, contempt, rebellion and degradation.

The accused contested any premeditation and intent to commit homicide during the investigation.