A Calgary victim’s family members say they feel cheated by the justice system after three killers charged with first-degree murder were given a plea deal.
Twenty-three-year-old Abiem Abiem’s family was expecting a trial to take place in 2018, but the ongoing court proceedings came to a sudden halt last week.
“They don’t care. No one even apologized for what happened,” said Abiem’s mother, Mary Malueth, standing at her son’s graveside.
Abiem was shot on Nov. 11, 2016 due to an ongoing feud involving his cousin.
He was taken at gunpoint to his cousin’s house in order to try and lure his cousin out. Abiem ran inside the house, managed to close the door, and that’s when the shooting happened.
Three days later, after a lengthy standoff with police, Matiop Nyok Okich, 21, Akieg Bol, 20, and Benjamin El-Ajak Nyiker, 23, were all charged with first-degree murder.
A five-day preliminary hearing was expected to start on Dec. 11, but that morning, Abiem’s mother and sister were called to the Calgary Courts Centre.
“They didn’t give us a heads-up of what was going to happen,” said Abiem’s sister, Victoria Abiem. “No one was there to support my family. It was just me and my mom.”
Abiem’s death is one of several murders to hit Calgary’s South Sudanese community. Since 2012, at least seven young men have been killed.
“It’s a crisis in the community; we feel we’re not being heard,” South Sudanese Community Association president Khor Top said.
“A lot of people are going through culture shock. It’s a different life in a different environment.”
In September, members of the South Sudanese community met with the province to try and figure out a solution but Top said so far, nothing has changed.
“I think there’s room for the government to get involved, to work together with the community and parents to bring this to an end.”
The Calgary Police Service has been working closely with the South Sudanese community for years and agrees its youth, like all newcomers to Canada, face many obstacles.
“Arriving in Canada, things can be challenging. They may not be supported, they may feel isolated,” Calgary Police Service Diversity Unit Const. Raul Espinosa said.
“If they don’t have that support, they’ll find it somewhere else. There’s a lot of groups willing to provide that support, but not all of them are positive.”
For Abiem’s family, it’s already too late.
There’s nothing that will bring Victoria’s brother back, but she still wants to see the bloodshed come to an end before some other young person’s life is cut short.
“It’s all people my age that keep passing away,” Victoria said. “It’s all really disturbing, because this level of violence should not even happen.
“It’s just a system that needs to change. It’s not working and they need to give people harsher sentences.”
In an email to Global News, Crown Prosecutor Joe Mercier wrote in part: “After an assessment of the evidence and witnesses, we felt we met the legal test for manslaughter but not murder.”
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