Sixteen-year-old sentenced to life for drug murder

Armin Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani will serve a minimum of 17 years

A teenager has been sentenced to life for murdering another teen over a drug debt.

Armin Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani will serve a minimum of 17 years for stabbing Mustafa Momand in Brighton in October 2023.

The trial at Lewes Crown Court had heard the killing happened over a £20,000 drug debt.

Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani can be named for the first time after media organisations, including the BBC, made an application to get an anonymity order lifted.

The trial heard Mustafa Momand was stabbed over a drug debt

The court heard how Mr Momand spent his dying moments running away in fear after he was knifed through the breast bone on Queens Road.

The A-level business and law student ran for 150m before he staggered and collapsed while his attacker yelled after him.

Judge Mr Justice Constable KC said Mustafa was trying to turn his life around from being a "minor pawn in the terrible drug business which destroys so many lives".

Mustafa Momand died in Queens Road, Brighton, after being stabbed

The trial heard how Mr Momand had racked up a £20,000 shared drug debt and that his parents had tried to save him from drug dealing and debts, and even begged the police to send him to prison.

Sentencing Mehdikhani-Sarvejahani, Mr Justice Constable said: "He was a brave young man who took the decision to try and leave the drug world behind him with his parents' support, but this meant leaving this so-called unpaid debt.

"I have no doubt that you were tasked, as an expendable foot soldier, with inflicting lethal punishment on Mustafa."

He added: "This tragic case serves as a stark reminder of the very real dangers that await young people who get involved in dealing drugs, of the appalling way in which young lives spiral quickly into effective servitude for the financial benefit of others and become treated as expendable, and most clearly, of the devastating consequences of ever more frequent knife crime."

'Heartbreaking consequences'

Speaking after the sentencing, Det Ch Insp Alex Campbell described the murder as a "senseless tragedy".

"Time and again across the country, we see the heartbreaking consequences of carrying a knife. Mustafa Momand, a child, has tragically lost his life. His family and loved ones must live with his loss for the rest of theirs.

"His killer will enter adulthood inside a prison cell. It is these tragedies that underpin our commitment to doing all we can to tackle knife crime.

"Any knife on the streets is one too many."

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