Two teenagers jailed for life over Birmingham murder

Abdullah Atiqzoy (left) and Sadam Essakhil (right) must serve life sentences, while Feizullah Atiqzoy (centre) has been jailed for four years

Two teenagers who stabbed a man to death and critically injured his friend have been handed life sentences.

Both men headed for the Continent after the street attack in Birmingham on 31 May last year in which Lukasz Furmanek died.

Abdullah Atiqzoy, 18, and Sadam Khan Essakhil, 16, were caught by police the following month.

A jury at Birmingham Crown Court in December found both guilty of murder and attempted murder.

Atiqzoy must serve a minimum of 26 years in prison, while Essakhil has been ordered to serve at least 19 years.

'Found in lorry'

The attack happened at the junction of Grove Lane and Holly Road, in Handsworth. Mr Furmanek, 24, died within seconds of meeting his attackers, who both fled, while Radoslaw Dudek, 31, was left fighting for his life.

Atiqzoy, of Elizabeth Crescent in Oldbury, was found by Kent Police on 6 June in a lorry heading for Calais. Essakhil, of Hob Moor Road in Small Heath, surrendered to police in Belgium three days later.

A third man, 24-year-old Feizullah Atiqzoy, of no fixed address, was jailed for four years for assisting an offender.

Madhu Rai, crown advocate for the Crown Prosecution Service in the West Midlands, described the assault as "vicious and senseless".

"Within 31 seconds of the group of men meeting each other, Lukas Furmanek had died and Radoslaw Dudek was fighting for his life," he said.