The fullest picture yet of how asylum seeker Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai blasted two men to death in a gangland assassination in Serbia before pretending to be a child to con British authorities and get into the UK is revealed today.
Documents now obtained by MailOnline detail how the Afghan was involved as an enforcer in the lucrative human trafficking trade that sends thousands of young men across Europe to Britain – and how he gunned down two rival traffickers.
Abdulrahimzai’s case has become notorious in recent days after it emerged that he had been able to get into Britain claiming to be a 14-year-old fleeing the war in Afghanistan – when really he was an adult double killer – before going on to stab innocent stranger Tom Roberts, 21, in Bournemouth.
The Government has said it will examine how the defendant was able to enter the UK falsely claiming to be a minor, a year after murdering two men in Serbia.
In an attempt to answer these questions MailOnline travelled to Serbia to investigate his case there. Serbian authorities initially tried to suppress the release of these public papers, claiming publication of the botched police investigation was ‘not in the Serbian national interest’.
Posing next to British schoolchildren after lying about his age, a grinning Abdulrahimzai has his pictured taken next to his classmates – who had no idea he had already murdered two people
MailOnline travelled to Serbia, where it uncovered police photos of the two men Afghan killer Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai slaughtered with an AK-47 (pictured above)
An appeal to the Serbian Ministry of Justice forced President of the Sabac High Court, Sasa Knezevic, where the Afghan was convicted of the murders in his absence, to release the documents to MailOnline.
Yet even now Abdulrahimzai’s case leaves many questions unanswered. It remains unclear, for example, exactly when or how he entered Serbia in the first place.
But the papers do reveal that some time after his arrival he claimed to be called Huan Yasin. He says he was born in Afghanistan. His birth date is recorded as January 1 2000 – to a father called Yashin, his mother’s name unrecorded – though this date is thought to be an approximation.
Serbia is known as a staging post on the increasingly well-established migrant route from eastern Europe and Asia to Britain. And it’s likely he passed overland through Iran, Turkey, Greece and North Macedonia, along the so-called ‘west Balkan route’, first used by up to one million Syrian refugees fleeing the devastating war in 2015. Tens of thousands from across Asia, Africa and the Middle East have followed in the years since.
Abdulrahimzai, who would later claim he had been tortured by the Taliban and left for dead at the side of the road before being smuggled out of the country by a man described as his ‘uncle’, is first recorded in Serbia in October 2015.
A few weeks later he was in Norway. By the summer of 2016 Abdulrahimzai, using one of his many fake names, had his fingerprints taken in Italy, in the northeastern port city of Trieste.
Police are pictured in Dobrinci, Serbia, where Abdulrahimzai committed his first two murders
MailOnline has obtained exclusive images of the triple killer, who featured in a police file picture in Serbia (pictured “5” top row and image “2” bottom row)
He was still in Italy in February of 2017 when he was convicted of two drug offences in Italy and handed a suspended sentence.
He then returned to Serbia where he was recorded as being in June 2017 and is thought to have remained for 13 months until the murders.
The papers reveal how Abdulrahimzai is said to have used a number of aliases as he lived at an unofficial migrant camp in the town of Sid and remained unregistered, under the radar of Serbia’s already lax migrant system.
He was soon involved in organised crime, joining up with two known gangsters, also believed to be of Afghan origin, to work as an enforcer with a people smuggling operation, stowing migrants into lorries that use international trans-Balkan E-70 motorway, one of Serbia’s main transport links to the west.
He only properly came to the attention of the Serbian authorities after his name was linked to a double murder of fellow Afghans Hotak Kesmat and Mahmad Arif.
The documents reveal how together with a criminal associate he confronted and killed two rival people traffickers at the isolated village of Dobrinci close to the motorway because they were taking away their business.
The grainy police image shows a younger-looking Abdulrahimzai who was wanted for the slaughter of Hotak Kesmat and Mahmad Arif in July, 2018
The killings in the small rural village of Dobrinci, rocked the local community. Pictured are police vehicles patrolling the streets after the double shooting
The killing happened on July 31, 2018, outside a shed – which has since been demolished and ploughed over – where the two victims had been sleeping.
An argument broke out over trafficking migrants. Abdulrahimzai, who was armed with a 7.62mm calibre Kalashnikov assault rifle fired 18 rounds from a range of between three and 10 metres at both men, hitting them multiple times in the body and head.
The quiet farming village of Dobrinci was left in shock by the brutal murders in 2018.
Dobrinci mayor Slobodan Radojev told MailOnline: ‘We were all very shocked by the murders. This incident made us afraid.
‘One day we found these bodies in a field of watermelons and the atmosphere in the village changed completely.’
The court heard how ‘Abdulrahimzai’ was identified as the assassin in the days after the shooting by a witness at the scene.
Investigating Judge Marica Jolic told MailOnline: ‘Huan Yasin [Abdulrahimzai] was involved in human trafficking, charging refugees Euro 2000 [£1800] to smuggle them out of Serbia and into western Europe.
‘It was a small operation. But another group were trying to take their business so they killed them.’
The court records reveal how Abdulrahimzai and accomplice Faisal Igbal planned the murders, taking the machine gun as well as a pistol to the village of Dobrinci where migrants were waiting to be loaded into trucks heading west.
The bloodstained journey of triple murderer Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21, from Afghanistan, to the coastal resort of Bournemouth, Dorset is revealed
It states: ‘At an unspecified time in the period from July 31, 2018 to August 1, 2018, the accused Huan Yasin and Faisal Igbal, along with two other unknown persons, came to the area of the village of Dobrinci in a taxi driven by Srđan Sremac.
‘The village area is located near the Belgrade – Zagreb highway and the OMV gas station. They came to a hut located in the village.
‘On that occasion, the accused Huan Yasin [Abdulrahimzai]was carrying a Kalashnikov 7.62x 39 mm without authorization and Faisal Igbal was carrying a pistol of an unknown brand.’
The records state how the pair ordered the migrants to leave the shelter as they confronted their business rivals, Kesmat and Arif.
Witness Umar Ranjha from Pakistan told the court: ‘He [Abdulrahimzai] stood up and cocked his weapon and then he said to me; ‘get out because this a dispute between Afghans, it has nothing to do with you’.
‘I took my stuff and left. I walked to the village and I was outside the shop when I heard gun shots. I was afraid so I dumped by belongings and ran.’
The court records state: ‘After the arrival of the accused there was an argument between them and the victims Hotak Kesmat and Mahmad Arif over the illegal transfer of migrants across the border.
The face of a killer: Abdulrahimzai was jailed for life with a minimum of 29 years for the savage killing of Thomas Roberts, 21, in Bournemouth. Before this, he executed two Afghans in Serbia, firing 18 rounds, hitting them in the chest and head from close range
His third victim, Thomas Roberts (above), was stabbed to death during an argument over an e-scooter in Bournemouth
‘Those killed lived at the migrants centre in Obrenovac and were known as smugglers who illegally transferred migrants from Serbia to other European countries for money.
‘During the argument, the defendants pulled out their weapons, brandished them and pointed them at the victims.
‘After the others left the hut on the dirt road, Huan Yasin fired 18 bullets from Kalashnikovs in the direction of the victims Hotak Kesmat and Mahmad Arif, killing them.’
Abdulrahimzai fled the scene in a taxi and travelled to the border town of Sid, where he had been living in a migrant camp.
But he was identified to police by the driver Srdan Sremac who described the Afghan as ‘very upset and sweaty’.
The record states: ‘The taxi driver stated that he had previously driven ‘that young guy [Abdulrahimzai] to the migrant the Adasevci migrant reception centre near the town of Šid.
‘On returning that evening, he noticed that ‘the young guy’ was very upset and sweaty. He was unsettled in the taxi, turning around, constantly talking and showing signs of anxiety.
‘During identification taxi driver Srdjan Sremac described the person he drove from Šid town as a person about 20 years old, 1.65 to 1.67 meters tall.
Abdulrahimzai (centre with black hood) was caught on camera headbutting a reveller on a night just minutes before he murdered an aspiring Royal Marine in a row over an e-scooter
CCTV footage showed the moment Abdulrahimzai (circled in white) flees on foot while being chased by James Medway (circled in yellow), friend of fatally stabbed 21-year-old Thomas Roberts
‘He had scars on his arms, from his hands to his shoulders.
‘After he was shown photographs of five persons with similar characteristics, the witness pointed twice, with 100 percent certainty, to photographs numbered 2 and 5.
‘The accused Huan Yasin [Abdulrahimzai] was in the photographs (numbers 2 and 5).’
The prosecutor Mirjana Obradovic placed huge weight on the testimony of taxi driver Srdjan Sremac and the witness migrant Umar Ranjha.
The case was heard without a jury, as is common in Serbia.
Trial judge Marija Ivanovic found Abdulrahimzai guilty of the murders.
Her verdict stated: ‘From the testimony of the witness Umar Ranjha, whose testimony is supported by the material evidence found at the scene, it can be concluded that the accused Huan Yasin [Abdulrahimzai] fired the shots that killed the victims from the automatic rifle he was carrying.’
This was the dramatic moment armed police in Bournemouth finally arrested the triple killer from Afghanistan after he ruthlessly stabbed Thomas Roberts to death
The asylum seeker, seen here on bus CCTV, broke down in tears and claimed his parents were killed by the Taliban and detailed the alleged torture he endured
In November 2020 he was sentenced to 20 years in jail for the murders and his accomplice Igbal was sentenced to 11 years in jail, 10 years for conspiracy to murder and one year for possession of a gun.
However Abdulrahimzai was never brought to justice – he had got wind that police knew he was the killer and had fled the country
But the Belgrade authorities do not explain how he was able to flee the country so easily following the 2018 murders – or why they did not seek to extradite him back to Serbia to serve the 20-year prison service after he was tried, convicted and sentenced in his absence.
Abdulrahimzai would use his skills as a human trafficker to smuggle himself across Europe first back to Norway
Three months after the killings he applied for asylum in the Scandinavian country but was refused – and then set his sights on getting to Britain – via France.
On Boxing Day 2019 Abdulrahimzai was able to travel as an unaccompanied passenger on a Brittany Ferries service from Cherbourg in France to Poole in Dorset.
Upon arrival in Dorset, he told officials he was a 14-year-old boy.
Two years later he would stab aspiring Royal Marine Thomas Roberts to death in Bournemouth during an argument over an e-scooter.