Three men have been jailed after a street fight between rival barbershops near Nottinghamshire left a father-of-two dead. Herish Zandi pleaded guilty to manslaughter, saying he delivered the fatal knife blows to Seba Rash's heart, but the victim's family is furious and believes he is covering for the real killer.
Two other men, Danyaal Panah and Sam Mohazeri, admitted lesser charges of violent disorder. Ibrahim Takmary is the brother of victim Peshang Sleman, who was known as Seba Rash. Mr Takmary was seriously injured in the attack in Somercotes Hill and believes his brother's real killer has escaped justice, Derbyshire Live reports.
Mr Sleman died after a street fight between the two warring factions in Somercotes. Mr Takmary, who was also stabbed during the incident, said: "Where is the justice for my brother? We, as a family, feel totally let down. These men are monsters. They will come after us, we are sure of that."
Mr Takmary believes his beloved brother Mr Sleman, who he grew up with in Kurdistan, has been betrayed by what took place in court and that his whole family have been let down by the legal system. Additionally, he said that those who loved victim Peshang Sleman were not informed that the prosecution accepted lesser charges on a group of defendants four weeks into their murder trial.
"We believe that my brother was murdered but we were not told until the day before (the sentence) the prosecution had accepted these lesser charges. We feel that as we are not UK citizens we have been overlooked."
An all-day sentencing hearing at Leicester Crown Court heard how the two rival groups came together in Somercotes Hill following an ongoing dispute between 22-year-old Mr Sleman and a separate defendant, called Danyaal Panahi, after the former left the latter's barber's business to set up on his own.
Jailing Zandi for nine years, Judge Gregory Dickinson KC said: "Two groups decided to take the law into their own hands, culminating in the death of Peshang Sleman. Afterwards, he was abandoned to his fate.
"On any view, Peshang Sleman was outnumbered and someone had a knife, he was stabbed 13 times to the back, some of the injuries were superficial, others penetrated the muscle. There were two stab wounds to the chest, one to a depth of 14cm, or six inches, the full length of the blade.
"You, Herish Zandi, have admitted to wielding the knife which was used to inflict the fatal wounds. You were not acting in self-defence and neither was anyone else."
The victim, of Nottingham Road, Somercotes, died following the incident outside the Co-op in Somercotes Hill on November 25, 2021. His brother, Mr Takmary, who was also attacked with weapons during the street confrontation, was heard shouting 'I can't breathe' as he lay on the ground.
For the past month, five men have been on trial for the murder of Mr Sleman. They were Panahi, 23, of Kelvedon Gardens, St Anns, Nottingham; Zandi, 31, of Somercotes Hill, Somercotes; Mohammed Rasulli, 33, of Somercotes Hill, Somercotes; Mohazeri, 26, of Croydon Hill, Surrey, and Mohamad Shekak, 21, also of Kelvedon Gardens, St Anns.
All of them denied the charge and four weeks into the trial, the prosecution accepted a guilty plea to a lesser charge of manslaughter from Zandi and guilty pleas to violent disorder from Panahi and Mohazeri. Charges against the remaining two defendants have been dropped.
Nic Lobbenberg KC, prosecuting, said: "In Somercotes, there are two barber shops run by Kurds.
"Pro Barbers, at 249 Somercotes Hill, is a barber shop connected to the defendants in this case. SR Barbers, located at 38 Nottingham Road, just at the opposite end of the same street, is connected to the victims in this case.
"There has clearly been an ongoing feud between those connected with these two barber shops and in the early hours of November 25, 2021, this erupted into great violence in the area outside Pro Barbers. Peshang Sleman was killed and his brother was stabbed, causing really serious injury.
"A number of weapons were later recovered from the scene including a cosh, a baseball bat, a knife, knuckle dusters and screwdrivers. Police and ambulance crews later arrived at 1.55am and found two men lying on the pavement.
"One was lying unconscious and was not moving - that was Peshang Sleman. The other man was shouting 'I can't breathe'. That was his brother. Both had been stabbed."
Mr Lobbenberg said Mr Sleman suffered 10 separate stab wounds from the same weapon to the back and front of his body and a post mortem examination later found the fatal wound to be one which went through his chest and into his aorta, which is the main artery which takes blood away from the heart. He was declared dead at the Queen's Medical Centre, in Nottingham, at 2.37am.
"Immediately after the violence, as Peshang Sleman was lying on the pavement dying and his brother was seriously injured, the defendants did everything they could to get away from the scene and make themselves scarce."
A number of victim impact statements were read to the court by the prosecution team. They told how Mr Sleman, who has two daughters, had moved to the UK from Kurdistan in 2015 and was lawfully living and working in the UK.
In his victim impact statement, the victim's uncle, Bilshad Hussain, who described himself as the head of the family, said: "I lost my beautiful nephew when he was stabbed to death in the most heartless and brutal way. He had two beautiful daughters who will now grow up without their father in their life and he got married in July, 2021.
"(When he was killed) His wife was pregnant with his child and she has now given birth to his daughter. This is unbearable pain for me, I will never be the same person again."
Mr Sleman's former partner, Salma Akhtar, who gave birth to their daughter in July 2021, said: "He loved life, loved being around people, he was loyal, generous, kind-hearted and put the feelings of others before his own. His death has torn my life apart. I would do anything just to be able to give Seba a hug, him tell me everything is going to be alright, and for him to see his daughter one last time."
The victim's brother, Ibrahim Takmary, who was stabbed during the same incident, said: "He was not just my brother, he was my best friend and mentor, since childhood we have done everything together. The worst part of all was seeing Seba lying there in so much pain and agony. I was just not able to save his life."
And Mr Sleman's wife, Anita Hussain, told how she gave birth to their daughter in April 2022, months after he was killed. In her statement, she said: "It breaks my heart knowing that one day I will have to tell her the news of how his life was so cruelly taken away from us. His life was taken like it meant nothing and every day I wake feeling lost and alone."
Richard Littler KC, for Zandi, said his client was not a barber but works as a Yodel delivery driver and has been living in Leek, Staffordshire. He said: "It was a spur of the moment decision to pick up a knife, not brought by him, and use that knife twice to stab Peshang Sleman when Peshang Sleman was raining blows to his brother's head with a Stanley hammer. (It was) witnessing this that led to this defendant's loss of control."
Panahi was sent to prison for two years and 11 months.
Greg Bull KC, mitigating, said his client fled Kurdish Iran at the age of 15 as he and his family were being persecuted. He said the defendant arrived in the UK as a refugee and was taken in by a family of teachers. He said he got GCSEs at school and a HND in engineering at college.
He said: "Mr Panahi does not accept he played any part in the death of Mr Sleman and it is on that basis that he's pleaded guilty to what he accepts was a serious piece of violent disorder. He accepts there was a feud between him and the deceased. A gang was rounded up and journeyed to Nottingham where others joined. My client's case is that he had no knife or weapon."
Mohazeri was also jailed for two years and 11 months.
Melanie Simpson KC, his barrister, said her client has never accepted he had any weapon during the gang fight in Somercotes Hill. She said: "He came out of Pro Barbers and saw an altercation which had already started and wishing to protect his family he went towards the violence. He was overpowered by Mr Sleman who got on top of him and hit him to the head with a hammer. He thought he was going to die."
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