CAMPAIGNERS have urged the Crown Office to reopen the "racist" murder of a Somali student in Scotland 23 years ago under recently introduced double jeopardy legislation
Axmed Abuukar Sheekh, 28, was stabbed to death outside a pub after he and his cousin Abdirizak Yusuf had been racially abused by a group of football casuals in the Cowgate, Edinburgh, in January 1989.
Mr Sheekh told Ms Yusuf to run from the group and dragged himself to a phone box where he collapsed, dying later in the city's Royal Infirmary.
Three men were arrested but only two were brought to trial. At the eight-day hearing, all charges were dropped against one man while the other, Terence Reilly, was found guilty of possessing a knife and of assault but was acquitted of murder.
Last week's jailing of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the 1993 murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in London led to calls for the reopening of the investigation into the killing of Asian waiter Surjit Singh Chhokar.
Mr Chhokar was stabbed to death at his home in Overtown, North Lanarkshire, in November 1998. Ronnie Coulter was cleared at his first trial for the murder in 1998, after he blamed his nephew, Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery the following year. In 2000, Andrew Coulter and Montgomery were acquitted of murder at a trial after claiming Ronnie Coulter was responsible.
Now Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland is being urged to re-examine the Sheekh case after changes to double jeopardy legislation last year gave renewed hope to his supporters.
Joan Weir, of the Axmed Sheekh Commemorative Group, said his murder and the circumstances surrounding it should not be forgotten because they "illustrated a lot of failings" by the police and justice system.
She said: "There was clear racist evidence. We were very disappointed at the time about the quality of the prosecution while the defendants had a brilliant QC."
Ms Weir, who was a mentor to Mr Sheekh at Stevenson College, Edinburgh, and who tends his grave, said that, if the Crown was going to reopen an inquiry into Mr Chhokar's killing, it should be extended to include Mr Sheekh's death.
She said it was not a case of his family, who are in Somalia, wanting the case to be fought again. The issue was whether Scottish justice had moved on when dealing with racist crime and that "some kind of good" had come out of the tragedy.
Edinburgh Southern MSP Jim Eadie said Ms Weir had "done us a great service by reminding us of this tragic case where justice was clearly not done".
He added: "On the face of it, there are parallels with the Stephen Lawrence trial and, given the seriousness and significance of this case, I have written to the Solicitor-General asking her to look at whether it could be included in the review being conducted into which cases may be prosecuted under the new act.
"That is the very least we owe to Mr Sheekh and his family."
Ms Weir said the advances in DNA techniques over the past two decades could also be an important factor in any inquiry.
She said: "I believe there remains a responsibility on those of us, black and white, in Scotland who were involved at the time to try to ensure this case is included in any new review."
A Crown Office spokesman said: "The Lord Advocate has asked the Solicitor General to review cases that may be able to be prosecuted anew under the new Double Jeopardy Act. It is too early to speculate on how any particular case will be dealt with as a result. We can confirm that we have received a letter today from Jim Eadie MSP relating to the death of Axmed Abuukar Sheekh in January 1989 and will respond to him in due course."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article