A former member of the Kosovan Liberation Army who beat up his teenage wife shortly after he stabbed a man has been jailed for four years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Gardai had to break down the door of Hasan Abazi's flat near the city centre to rescue his wife, Sabrina, who could be heard inside screaming "help me please". She dashed out with their then eight-month-old daughter. The baby's sleeping suit and face were covered in blood.
The woman had been beaten viciously by her husband for more than two hours before gardai rescued her and took her to hospital. Abazi told gardai he had a right to beat his wife. "I will hit her when I like, f . . k you" he said. He added: "I hit her, it is not your business, this is the way in my country." When told it was not the way in Ireland he replied: "She married me and she will live my way." The court was told he was once tortured and shot by Serbian forces in Belgrade and later fled to Ireland by hiding in a container lorry. The couple married in June 1997.
Abazi pleaded guilty to two counts of assault at Summerhill, Dublin, on October 5th, 1998. Sgt Mary Diskin told Ms Pauline Walley, prosecuting, that some hours before he attacked his wife, Abazi for no reason stabbed a man called Mr Derek Shaw, who had been waiting to get a taxi with his girlfriend.
Abazi had shouted at them from the window of his flat shortly before that and then followed them down the road shouting "hey you" before stabbing Mr Shaw in the lower abdomen.
Mr Sean Gillane, defending, said Abazi had a harrowing background and had "effectively snapped". He was given anti-epilepsy drugs which he mixed with a cocktail of alcohol on the night of the stabbings. Abazi had also been the victim of a severe assault in Dublin in April 1998 and had a metal plate inserted in his head.
There were altercations involving members of the woman's family and friends of Abazi in the court and outside on the courthouse steps after he was jailed by Judge Frank O'Donnell.