A drive to raise funds for the 'Justice for Yousef Makki' campaign has topped £22,000 following a flurry of large donations.
It means the Makki family, turned down for legal aid, will be represented by a team of top lawyers at a fresh inquest into the teenager's 2019 death later this year.
Yousef, 17, a talented Manchester Grammar School pupil from a humble background in Burnage, was fatally stabbed by his friend Joshua Molnar, from a wealthy family, in Hale Barns on March 2, 2019.
Molnar, then 17, told a jury he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Yousef through the heart on leafy Gorse Bank Road. He said Yousef had pushed him and pulled a knife first - he was acquitted of murder and manslaughter following a trial.
The Makki family fought for and won an inquest in 2021 at which Molnar said he couldn't remember who pulled a knife first. Now aged 21, he is set to be asked again about the circumstances in which he stabbed his friend to death in a fresh inquest expected later this year.
Molnar was handed a 16-month detention and training order after admitting possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury and lying to police at the scene following his 2019 trial.
At the the first inquest in 2021 at South Manchester Coroner’s Court in Stockport, senior coroner Alison Mutch said that she could not return a conclusion of ‘unlawful killing’, saying the 'precise circumstances' surrounding Yousef’s stabbing could not be 'ascertained'. The Makki family have always maintained that Yousef was a ‘peacemaker’ and said they were 'disgusted' with the conclusion.
The Makki family took the case to a judicial review and in January High Court judges quashed the decision of the original inquest and directed a fresh inquest before a different coroner.
It prompted a fundraising drive by the Makki family to pay for a solicitor, a junior barrister and a top KC at the new inquest, which is expected in October.
Molnar is expected to be represented by a top legal team at the new inquest, as he was at the trial and the first inquest.
Molnar's co-defendant at the 2019 trial, another MGS student, Adam Chowdhary, now 20, from a wealthy Hale Barns family, who described Yousef as his 'best friend', is also expected to be represented by top lawyers again.
Chowdhary was acquitted of perverting the course of justice at the 2019 trial. He was given a four-month detention order after admitting possession of a flick knife, one of two he claimed he and Yousef had jointly ordered online during a break from lessons at MGS.
The Makki family's fundraising drive had stalled in recent weeks, leaving them well short of the £20,000 target.
But that changed when another MGS old boy, Parklife music festival founder Sacha Lord, promised to match any subsequent donations. That vow prompted a flurry of donations including £5,000 from one anonymous donor on the Makki family's gofundme page.
Mr Lord, night-time economy adviser to Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, matched the new donations as promised, stumping up £6.812. It meant the fund topped £22,000, well above the target.
Yousef's sister Jade Akoum, a ceaseless campaigner for answers, told the M.E.N: "It shows really kind people are behind us, supporting us. They are doing it out of the goodness of their heart. We don't qualify for legal aid at the inquest because Yousef wasn't killed by the state or an authority. It means we will be on an equal footing."
The Makki family is pushing for an unlawful killing verdict at the fresh inquest.
Sacha Lord, from Hale Barns, told the M.E.N: "I just don't think cost should be a barrier to justice. If I can play a small part, I have to do that. The whole case touched a nerve with me. Yousef went to my old school and it happened around the corner from me."
Read more of today's top stories here
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- Shocking CCTV captures Yousef Makki's final moments before he's stabbed to death
- Yousef Makki’s family WIN appeal for new inquest into stabbed teenager’s death
- The extraordinary woman who refused to give up fighting for answers - even when the odds were against her
- The teenager who stabbed Yousef Makki to death can finally be named as Joshua Molnar
- The privileged Manchester Grammar School pupil who imported the knife that killed his good friend Yousef Makki can now be named
