Iraqi immigrant seen on CCTV stabbing student in attempt to get deported

In a video surveillance footage released by the Crown Prosecution Service, 28-year-old Rebaz Mohammed [R] is seen speaking to the college student [L] in a Southampton park in December 2022 before he stabbed him in the back. (Screenshot/Crown Prosecution Service)

• Southampton Crown Court sentences 28-year-old accused to six years for causing bodily harm and possessing a knife
• Offender arrived in UK by boat, wanted to be deported and needed to commit a serious offense, his lawyer argued.

DUBAI: A jobless and penniless Iraqi immigrant stabbed a student in a bid to get deported from the UK for a criminal act, Sky News reported on Thursday.
In video surveillance footage released by the Crown Prosecution Service, 28-year-old Rebaz Mohammed was seen speaking to the college student in a Southampton park in December 2022 before he stabbed him in the back.
Mohammed was reported to have entered a guilty plea before the Southampton Crown Court, which jailed him for six years for causing bodily harm and possessing a knife in a public place.
The 28-year-old had arrived in the UK by boat and had been living in a hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset. The Southern Daily Echo reported that his lawyer Richard Tutt argued in court that his client wanted to be deported and had to commit a serious offense for this to happen.
As he sentenced Mohammed in February, Judge Brian Forster, KC, said that the victim, who managed to escape after being chased by the defendant, could have been killed in the attack.
A Home Office spokesman did not confirm whether or not Mohammed would be deported.
“Foreign national offenders who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes will face the full force of the law, including deportation at the earliest opportunity for those eligible,” he said.