An Afghan small boat migrant travelled almost 200 miles to stab a shop worker to death near Westminster Abbey, a court has heard.
Suliaman Tajzai, 18, travelled from Leeds to London to murder 26-year-old Farmanullah Sherzad on March 27 this year.
Tajzai, of Beeston in Leeds, chased Mr Sherzad through the Peabody Estate on Abbey Orchard Street, London, with two local residents hearing the commotion.
When police arrived at the scene, Mr Sherzad – who lived in Westminster – was found lying on his side in a pool of blood with a large kitchen knife embedded in his chest.
The Old Bailey heard Tajzai, who is ‘understood to be 18’, came to Britain over four years ago from France, crossing the Channel on an inflatable boat.
In his asylum interview, Tajzai said he was 14, but was assigned a birth date by the Home Office in 2023 after claiming to not know his birthday or month.
Lisa Wilding KC, prosecuting, said: ‘[Tajzai] entered the UK illegally on 1st August 2022 having travelled from France on an inflatable boat across the Channel.
‘The following day he made a claim for asylum and on 17th January 2024 he was granted temporary leave to remain until January 2029.’
Afghan small boat migrant Suliaman Tajzai travelled from Leeds to London to murder Farmanullah Sherzad earlier this year
Speaking to the court, Ms Wilding described Tajzai’s actions on the day of Mr Sherzad’s murder as ‘neither a coincidence nor spontaneous’.
She said Tajzai had travelled to London on three separate occasions to work out where Mr Sherzad lived and worked, and that morning had purchased the knife he used in the attack.
Describing the events, Ms Wilding said: ‘He travelled to London armed with that knife, waited for his target outside his home and then confronted him in a sustained and brutal attack that led to Mr Sherzad’s immediate death.’
The court heard five months earlier, Tajzai and cousin, Zakirullah Tarakhail, had tied up Mr Sherzad when it emerged he had been secretly messaging Tarakhail’s wife, Kabuli.
In September 2025, Mr Tarakhail filed a police report against Mr Sherzad in September 2025, after accusing him of stalking and trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence.
But when asked by an officer to show Snapchat messages with Mr Sherzad on his wife’s phone – written in Arabic – she deleted all of them and refused to provide a signed statement or go to court.
Authorities attended the Tarakhails’ home in Leeds on October 3 where they found Mr Sherzad sitting on the floor with no shoes on and his wrists bounds with fabric.
At that stage Mr Sherzad was arrested for stalking Mrs Tarakhail.
It was then he told police: ‘Me and Safa (Kabuli Tarakhil) have been seeing each other romantically. We went once to Mazza restaurant and once we met in the park.
‘She messages me on Snapchat and calls me to come and see her.
‘Today she asked me to come to her house. I rang the doorbell, she released the door and told me to come upstairs. I came up to the flat, she opened the door and I came inside.
‘As I came in, her husband and brother were there. They took my mobile phone and they still have my phone. They then phoned the police and the police attended the property.
‘I did not say I want to have sex with Safa at all. This is the third time I have seen Safa. I am the victim here please help me.’
Police later informed the Tarakhails it was dropping its case against Mr Sherzad, but the prosecutor said: ‘It is clear that in her mind, and you may conclude, her husband’s, this was not over.’
Ms Wilding said Tajzai and his cousin continued ‘searching out’ Mr Sherzad, who lived 200 miles away in Westminster.
She told jurors: ‘What, you may ask, could have brought Sulaiman Tajzai and his cousin to a shop in south London?
‘And what would make them wait there for so long?
‘Why did the defendant hire a bike and follow the man who had been tied up in his cousin’s house? Anger? Revenge? Curiosity?
‘Whatever the reason, it persisted.’
Tajzai denies murder and knife possession in a public place.
The trial continues.
