Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai | |
Birth Date: | 2001 |
Birth Place: | Afghanistan |
Known For: | Convicted of multiple murders in Serbia and the United Kingdom |
Criminal Charge: | Two counts of murder (Serbia), one count of murder (UK) |
Criminal Penalty: | Life imprisonment with a minimum of 29 years |
Criminal Status: | Convicted |
Victims: | Three men |
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai (born 2001) is an Afghan man who murdered three men; two in Serbia and one in the United Kingdom.[1] [2] Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai was born in Afghanistan in 2001. From 2015, he moved illegally through many international borders, initially through Pakistan and Iran before moving between Norway, Italy and Serbia.[1] On 31 July 2018, he used a Kalashnikov rifle to shoot dead two Afghan men, for which he was convicted in absentia of two counts of murder.[1] [2] In 2019 he made a claim for asylum in Norway.[1] [2] During December 2019, it was rejected; during the same month he illegally entered the United Kingdom, where he claimed asylum, pretending to be an unaccompanied 14-year-old.[1] [3] [2] He moved to Poole, Dorset, England, where he was put into foster care.[2] On 12 March 2022, he stabbed stranger Thomas Roberts to death in the street in Bournemouth, Dorset, England.[1] [3] [2] Abdulrahimzai admitted manslaughter, but denied murder.[1] In January 2023, he was tried at Salisbury Crown Court in Wiltshire, where on 23 January he was convicted of murder.[1] [3] On 25 January, the same court sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum of 29 years.[1] [2]