January 10, 2020
An Iranian teenager has been jailed for 12 years in Great Britain for stabbing another Iranian man outside a center for asylum seekers, where both were residents.
Soheil Bahmanifard, 18, denied trying to kill Amirreza Ramezani by knifing him repeatedly. He was found guilty by a jury of other charges following a seven-day trial at Cardiff Crown Court in Wales.
Judge Neil Bidder said: “The attack, in my judgment, was determined and persistent.”
Cardiff Crown Court heard “bad feeling” had developed between the pair, who started brawling on the grounds June 14.
The fight was broken up by center staff and Ramezani left, but he came back later because he had plans to meet his girlfriend there.
In the meantime, Bahman-ifard went inside and got a knife from the kitchen. When he came outside with the knife, he was disarmed “with some difficulty” by center staff. But then he went back to the kitchen when they were not looking and hid another knife in his trousers.
Judge Bidder said: “You rushed out of the door and immediately attacked him repeatedly with the knife. You wielded the knife some 10 or so times towards him. It is clear that during the fight you were stabbing upwards towards his stomach and chest.”
The court heard the attack caused two “very serious” wounds. The first went through the victim’s left forearm. The wound to his chest was life-threatening and came within millimeters of his heart, causing a puncture to his lung lining.
Bahmanifard pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and possessing an offensive weapon, but denied attempted murder and wounding with intent. The jury found him not guilty of attempted murder but guilty on the other charges.
The judge accepted that Ramezani started the original fight, but ruled Bahmanifard was a “willing participant” in the fight.
