Fugitive guilty of stabbing asylum seeker to death in row over £10 drug debt

Moosakhan Nasiri, 20, was stabbed in the chest in October 2017.

Moosakhan Nasiri was stabbed to death in a row over a drugs debt (Metropolitan Police PA) (PA Archive)

A fugitive has been found guilty of stabbing an Afghan asylum seeker to death over a £10 debt nearly six years ago.

Moosakhan Nasiri, 20, who was known as Moosa, was set upon by a group of fellow Afghans in Plashet Park, East Ham, east London, on October 15 2017.

He was punched and kicked by the attackers and fatally stabbed once in the chest by Javid Ahmadzai, jurors were told.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey, Ahmadzai, now 28, was found guilty of murder and violent disorder.

The court had heard how Mr Naseri had come to the UK in 2005 to seek asylum because of the actions of the Taliban.

He lived in Bradford before moving to London to stay with an Afghan foster family who lived near the park where he died.

Although he was not entitled to work in the UK, he would find occasional employment as a labourer, jurors were told.

Prosecutor Lisa Wilding KC said that the brutal attack had arisen because the victim owed £10 for some drugs which he could not pay back immediately.

An argument broke out between him and three of the group before the defendant received a phone call summoning him to the park to join in.

After the killing, Ahmadzai fled to France where in September 2018 he was convicted of stabbing a man in the chest during a row over the behaviour and language of the group he was in.

On the day of his release from French custody last June  21, he was extradited back to the UK and arrested for murder.

Following his conviction on Tuesday, Ahmadzai was remanded into custody to be sentenced on August 10.