For Fowzia Sonday, mediation with the man who killed her father 11 years ago will bring closure and help her find peace.
|||Cape Town - For Fowzia Sonday, mediation with the man who killed her father in his Wynberg shop 11 years ago will bring closure and help her find peace.
Sonday says she has forgiven Raafiq Abrahams, 25, for stabbing her father, Sulaiman Brey, 63, on November 13, 2002.
Abrahams was sentenced to an effective three years’ house arrest on Friday.
Despite being charged with murder, the prosecution accepted his guilty plea on a lesser charge of culpable homicide and attempted aggravated robbery.
Abrahams received a wholly suspended sentence of eight and five years in jail respectively on condition he was not again convicted of similar offences over the next five years.
“Mediation is the next step towards closure and finding peace and I know he is on his road to redemption,” Sonday said speaking to the Cape Argus after Abrahams was sentenced.
Sonday said her father’s memory would be honoured when Abrahams conducted his 500 hours of community service from now until 2016.
“When the probation officer interviewed us we did not feel that imprisonment was ideal. My dad lived for the betterment of mankind. He was such a community-driven person. Everyone liked him. So serving the community will bring honour to our dad,” she said.
Abrahams had entered into a plea and sentence agreement with the State, admitting that he went to the Wittebome Superette – when he was just 14 – with the intention of robbing Brey, thinking he was elderly and would not resist.
But Brey put up a fight. Abrahams hit him over the head with the knife and when they fell to the ground during the scuffle, Abrahams stabbed him.
Abrahams fled the scene, dumped the knife and ran home. He later realised Brey was dead but kept quiet.
Eleven years later, “because the guilt was eating away at me” Abrahams went to Brey’s brother, Akkil, and confessed.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus