SARAH CRAWFORD
The Daily Telegraph
February 16, 2016
Life of violence: Mustapha Dib, boy from Sydney’s worst street
Mustapha Dib released from jail after murder conviction quashed
Mustapha Dib appeals murder conviction of pregnant woman
FOR years the parents of 14-year-old stabbing victim Edward Lee would hold vigil by his grave all night because they feared he would be “cold and lonely in the grave by himself”.
Edward's father Doojin Lee said he was devastated after seeing photos of his son’s killer Mustapha Dib smiling as he was released from jail following his acquittal by the Court of Criminal Appeal for the murder of a woman two years after his only son's death.
“I just want to see my son's killer back in jail,” the 64-year-old tiler said from his Campsie unit today.
The Canterbury Boy's High School student was fatally stabbed in 1998 on Telopea St, Punchbowl after mistakenly going to the wrong house for a 15th birthday party.
Mustapha Dib pleaded guilty to Edward's manslaughter and was sentenced to a minimum of five years.
He was released on parole in 2009 but taken back into custody in 2011 accused of the shooting murder of 20-year-old Anita Vzrina and the wounding of former schoolmate Ahmed Banat.
The prosecution alleged that Dib shot Vzrina and Banat on November 23, 2000, while they were in a car because he believed his school friend had turned police informant and would give evidence against him at his upcoming trial for Edward's stabbing.
A jury found him guilty of Ms Vzrina's murder in June 2012 and he was sentenced to 40 years jail.
On Monday the Court of Criminal Appeal acquitted him of Ms Vzrina's murder saying the jury could not have found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt because Banat's evidence at the trial contradicted his statement to police when he was in hospital.
Mr Lee has kept numerous newspaper articles on his son's death and Dib's sentencing for manslaughter.
He recounted how at his son's funeral the students of Punchbowl Primary School lined the street, where Edward had been dux, to see his coffin driven by in a hearse.
Mr Lee said the CCA decision had left him feeling disappointed and helpless.
“There is no justice for poor people like us,” he said.
A family friend, who did not wish to be named, said Mr Lee and his wife Soo Bin Lee, who are Korean immigrants, were “devastated” felt let down by the Australian justice system.
The friend said that for years the couple had visited their son's grave every day at Castlebrook Memorial Park at Rouse Hill in Sydney's north west.
“They would stay there all night because they told me their son felt cold and lonely in his grave by himself...and in the morning they would go to work,” the friend said.
“They can't understand that he has been allowed to go free.”
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