A Muslim man has been found guilty of murdering his polygamist uncle for secretly marrying his half-sister in Brisbane, and sentenced to life behind bars.
Za’id Abdus Samad, 28, lured Abdul Basith Mohammed, 35, outside his home in Kuraby by cutting the power and stabbed him to death in an honour killing in October 2017.
His week-long Queensland Supreme Court trial heard the killer was “disgusted” by his uncle’s Islamic marriage to his niece, Noelia Abdus Samad, who Za’id believed at the time was his biological sister, The Courier Mail reported.
Mohammed, the owner of Sizza Indian & Middle Eastern Restaurant, was still married to his first wife, and had children with both women, and Za’id believed the marriage was “haram” and incestuous, but was unaware that Noelia was only his half-sister.
The court heard that Mohammed’s second marriage caused frictions in the family when it was discovered, and that Za’id said they should both be killed but wasn’t sure if it was permissible to murder his sister because she had a baby.
Crown prosecutor Toby Corsbie told the court Za’id believed his uncle “deserved to die” due to his belief that Noelia was his full biological sister.
“Za’id Abdus Samad murdered his uncle based on a tragic misunderstanding of the family history and fuelled by family hatred, that he carried out in cold blood,” he said.
Justice Glenn Martin described the murder as a “vicious ambush” and the stabbing, which left a 16cm penetration wound, as “brutal”.
“However you might have abhorred what he did, however you felt about what he did, could not constitute any kind of reason for the conduct you engaged in,” he said.
Za’id, who studied the Koran before going to university to become a paramedic, offered to perform Islamic death rites after Mohammed’s death, helped lower him into his grave at his funeral, and consoled his sister when she visited the family home.
He will be eligible for parole in 2038.
Header image: Left, Za’id Abdus Samad after his arrest (7 News). Right, Abdul Basith Mohammed (Facebook).
