Overview

• Za'id Abdus Samad entered a not-guilty plea as a two-week jury trial began in the Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane before Justice Glenn Martin.
• The Crown alleges he cut power at Abdul Basith Mohammed’s Kuraby home to lure him outside, then fatally stabbed him five times in a backyard ambush.
• Jurors were told forensic testing found DNA attributed to Abdus Samad on a power-box switch at the home, and that a knife rope handle in his room carried DNA far more likely to be the deceased’s.
• Prosecutors say the motive stemmed from Abdus Samad’s stated disgust at his uncle’s Islamic-only second marriage to a woman raised within the family, described as haram, with alleged statements about adultery and incest.
• The defence contends identification is the key issue and the case is largely circumstantial aside from an alleged confession, urging jurors to scrutinize the DNA evidence and whether it could reasonably have been someone else.