Defence highlights defendant’s complexion in Höfðatorg case

Defence lawyer Sveinn Andri Sveinsson has sought an acquittal for Mohamed Sayidali Ahmed in the Höfðatorg case, arguing that no evidence proves his client stabbed the complainant, mbl.is reported.

Ahmed is charged with attempted murder over an incident in a parking garage during the night of March 17. He is accused of stabbing the complainant in the left buttock. The complainant was also struck by vehicles and beaten.

Sveinn rejected the claim that Ahmed acted jointly with the other defendants, noting that he was not involved in the alleged vehicle assaults or beatings. He said no witness had seen Ahmed stab the complainant, who was also unable to identify him as the attacker. The complainant described the assailant as a man dressed in black with part of his face covered, while Ahmed was wearing grey clothing.

The lawyer also argued that Ahmed’s complexion should have made him easier to identify than the others present.

“My client is much darker-skinned than everyone else in the building. It should therefore have been much easier to identify him than the others there, who had much lighter skin. The complainant did not do so,” Sveinn said.

Sveinn said footage from the parking garage did not establish beyond reasonable doubt that Ahmed had a knife or stabbed the complainant. No bladed weapon linked to Ahmed had been found, he said, and there were no bloodstains on his clothing.

He also said the complainant and his companions had arrived at the garage armed and intending to fight. They had received a response in keeping with that, he argued.

“They were not there for a darts night but to settle a dispute,” Sveinn said.

Several witnesses told the court that they had not seen Ahmed with a knife. They said he had been carrying what was described as an African toothbrush and had tried to stop the fighting.

The defence lawyer criticised the police assessment of video footage, which included an interpretation that Ahmed could be seen taking a knife from a sheath and stabbing the complainant. Sveinn said that interpretation did not match the complainant’s description of the attack and argued that Ahmed could instead be seen trying to stop the fight.

He further argued that even if Ahmed were found to have caused the stab wound, it had not been established that the act amounted to attempted murder. A forensic pathologist had not considered any single injury suffered by the complainant to be life-threatening, he said.