Kilburn man jailed for road rage stabbing in Hampstead

Ehsan Khozanie Shamali knifed Mohammed Islam in the stomach

An Iranian refugee who stabbed a car passenger after a road rage row has been jailed for two years.

Ehsan Khozanie Shamali, 35, of Kilburn High Road, Kilburn, pulled out a pen knife and knifed Mohammed Islam in the stomach as they squared up in Fellows Road, Hampstead.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard Shamali had swerved around a car in which Mr Islam was a passenger before accelerating and sharply breaking.

Both drivers squared up in the street and Mr Islam was stabbed when he stepped in to break up the fight in June 2011.

Shamali abandoned his car and fled to a friend’s house for three hours, before reporting his vehicle as stolen.

Mr Islam needed an emergency operation but narrowly avoided damage to his major organs.

Shamali illegally entered the UK 13 years ago after being locked up and tortured for 18 months under the regime.

He was granted asylum but was later convicted of beating up the mother of his children in 2003.

He claimed another spell behind bars would damage his fragile mental state.

Sam Robinson, defending, said his client was under the care of Camden and Islington Mental Health services, and still suffered the effects of being tortured in Iran.

Pleading for a suspended sentence, Mr Robinson said Shamali was ‘living in perpetual limbo’ as he was suffering from mouth cancer and needed an operation on his spine.

But Judge David Martineau said an immediate jail sentence was inevitable as he had risked causing ‘serious harm’.

He added: “Despite the opinion that a prison sentence would have a very detrimental effect on you mental health, it is the only sentence to do justice in the public interest and do justice to the victim.”

Shamali denied unlawful wounding but was convicted after a trial.