Two drug dealers have been sentenced to life in prison at the Central Criminal Court for murdering a promising young footballer who had stolen €6,000 worth of cannabis.
Muna Ali, the mother of the deceased man Mahamud Ilyas (22), wrote a statement that was read out at Monday’s sentencing hearing for her son’s murderers, Viorel Doroscan (23) and Otniel Richardo Clejan (24).
She described Mahamud as a good son and a lovely young man who had “high hopes for a career in football”.
She added: “Everybody in the family loved him and he had a lot of good friends. He was a good brother, especially to his sisters, and was like a father figure when his father was not in Ireland.”
U2’s The Edge conferred with Irish citizenship in Kerry ceremony
Iran launches attack on US air base in Qatar, all missiles intercepted
HSE apologises to teenager (17) for injection of wrong Covid vaccine with already-used needle
Leaving Cert holidays 2025: Pupils and parents on ‘hellish’ Albufeira, ‘crazy’ Zante and ‘cultural’ Berlin
The trial heard that Doroscan and Clejan beat Mr Ilyas by stamping on him, kicking him, and striking his head with a hammer at an apartment in Blanchardstown in Dublin. They tied his hands and feet, wrapped him in a duvet and travelled to a wooded area at Belgree Lane in Co Meath where they left their victim to die from his injuries.
Ms Ali said reliving the nightmare of her son’s death has left her devastated.
She said: “He was left in the middle of nowhere with no respect. The way he died was so painful and I feel helpless that I could not help him ... They took his future, he was so young and full of life. My son was everything to me.”
Handing down the mandatory sentence for murder, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said Doroscan and Clejan had suffered a “massive loss of control and reason” when they assaulted Mr Ilyas.
However, a distressing aspect of the crime, he said, was the “disrespectful and callous way in which the seriously injured Mr Ilyas was dealt with.” By the time they had driven to Belgree Lane, Mr Justice Hunt said their “passions should have cooled”. Nevertheless, they “parcelled Mr Ilyas up” and left him.
Whatever chance he had of surviving the assault was “snuffed out by their callous actions”, the judge said.
Extending his sympathy to the family, he added: “The loss is unimaginable for those who have not had the misfortune to find themselves in that situation.”
Doroscan, of Bay Meadows Square, Hollystown, West Dublin, and Clejan, with a former address at Verdemont, Blanchardstown, Dublin pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ilyas on December 9th, 2022. A jury convicted them of murder by unanimous verdict earlier this year.
Gardaí discovered Mr Ilyas’s body at Belgree Lane the day after the murder following a tip-off from a member of the public.
Det Gda Sean O’Farrell told the court that Clejan had no relevant previous convictions while Doroscan had two for possession of drugs and one for possession of drugs for sale or supply.
Robert Burns (59), who lived at the apartment in Verdemont where the assault took place, previously pleaded guilty to impeding the arrest or prosecution of Doroscan and Clejan by cleaning Mr Ilyas’s blood from the carpet and walls.
Another co-accused, Lorenzo Cantaragiu (22), of Castlegrange Park, Blanchardstown, was found guilty by a jury of four counts of impeding the apprehension or prosecution of Doroscan and Clejan.
Cantaragiu drove the two killers to Belgree Lane with Ilyas in the back and later cleaned blood from the back seat before selling the car.
Lawyers for Cantaragiu and Burns will make submissions to the court on July 4th before Mr Justice Hunt sentences them.
Det Gda O’Farrell told prosecution counsel Eoin Lawlor SC, with Jane Murphy BL, that Clejan and Doroscan were using Burns’s home to store drugs. On December 8th, 2022 Mr Ilyas entered Mr Burns’s home and stole a bag of drugs, which Burns estimated was worth €6,000.
Mr Ilyas spoke to Doroscan on the phone that night and offered to sell some of the drugs back to him for €500. They arranged to meet the following afternoon. When Ilyas went to Verdemont, Clejan and Doroscan got him on the floor where they demanded he tell them where he had put the drugs, beat him with hammers and used their feet to stamp and kick him in the torso and head. Doroscan recorded part of the assault on Snapchat.
Both Clejan and Doroscan claimed they acted in self-defence after Mr Ilyas attacked them with a crowbar.
