Habib Shah Shamel handed life sentence over murder

A man has been given a life sentence after pleading guilty to murdering a woman in the Republic of Ireland more than two years ago.

Geila Ibram, who was 27 and originally from Romania, was stabbed five times at her apartment in Limerick city on 4 April 2023.

28-year-old Habib Shah Shamel appeared in the dock of Belfast Crown Court from custody to be formally arraigned on two charges.

When the charge of murdering Ms Ibram was put to him in court, Shamel, an Afghani national formerly of Cecil Street in Limerick, replied through an interpreter: “I am guilty”.

Shamel had arranged by text to meet Ms Ibram for sex, senior prosecutor David McDowell KC told the court.

“He arrived at the flat and paid her €100. She gave the money to a colleague,” he said.

Mr McDowell said that “several seconds later this colleague heard screams and it was apparent he had stabbed Ms Ibram”.

“The fatal injury was to the chest which went through her lungs and entered her heart. Death was as a result of blood loss due to multiple stab wounds,” he said.

Mr McDowell said the “fact that he stabbed” Ms Ibram within her within seconds of meeting her “invites the obvious inference that he came there to kill her”.

Shamel fled the scene and went to Dublin before heading to Belfast via bus.

He was stopped by the PSNI in a car on the Malone Road in south Belfast just before 15:30 on 6 April 2023.

During interviews with police, Shamel said he had gone to the escort to “satisfy his sexual needs” because of something he had viewed online.

When he was arrested, the PSNI seized a rucksack. They found found a notebook which contained a handwritten letter to Shamel’s mother in which he expressed a desire to “sacrifice his life to Allah”.

The bag also contained a USB stick which had alleged terrorist-related videos of executions, dismemberment, encouragement to support Jihad, instructions on how to construct and detonate an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), the court heard.

Mr McDowell said there were also videos of suicide bombers.

When the charge of possessing a “document or record containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, namely files within a USB”, Shamel replied: “I am not guilty.”

The court heard a trial date had been set for 8 September 2025. It is expected to last two weeks.

Defence barrister Chris Sherrard said he would be seeking expert witnesses as rebuttal to two prosecution experts who have made reports on the contents of the USB stick.

Following his guilty plea to murdering Ms Ibram, Mr Justice O’Hara told the defendant: “Mr Shamel, since you have pleaded guilty to the murder of Ms Ibram in April 2023 I must now impose on you a sentence of life imprisonment.”

The judge said there will be a subsequent hearing “at which I will set the number of years which you must serve before your release can be considered”.

“However number of years that will be, you will serve a very long period of time in prison before consideration of your release ever comes around.”

The judge postponed the life sentence tariff hearing until after the September trial.

He added that he would review the case of possessing documents likely to be of use to terrorists in three weeks time.

Mr Shamel was charged under the Criminal Jurisdiction Act 1975, which allows the PSNI to prosecute in Northern Ireland if a suspect has fled from a different jurisdiction.