A man who admitted murdering Geila Ibram in Limerick has pleaded guilty to a terrorist-related offence.
Habib Shah Shamel (29) appeared in the dock of Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday.
However, defence counsel Niall Hunt told Judge Stephen Fowler that he had an application to have Shamel rearraigned on the single charge left on the bill of indictment which he had previously denied.
The charge stated that on April 6th, 2023, he “possessed a document or record containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, namely files within USB, exhibit UD13″.
When the charge was put to Afghan national Shamel by the court clerk, he replied through a Farsi interpreter: “guilty”.
Senior prosecutor David McDowell told Fowler: “That disposes of the indictment. There has already been a guilty plea to count one (charge of murder) which was on May 2nd, 2025.”
Hunt said he didn’t believe he would be relying on any other reports apart from a pre-sentence report compiled on the defendant by the Probation Board.
Fowler listed the tariff hearing for the murder charge for November 6th, 2026, when he will also hand down a sentence for possessing documents likely to be of use to terrorists.
In May last year, following Shamel’s guilty plea to murder, a senior judge told him: “Shamel, since you have pleaded guilty to the murder of Geila Ibram in April 2023, I must now impose on you a sentence of life imprisonment.
Belfast man charged with stalking Stephen Nolan and breaching Jamie Bryson harassment order
“There will be a subsequent hearing to set the number of years which you must serve before your release can be considered.
“However number of years that will be, you will serve a very long period of time in prison before consideration of your release ever comes around.”
Geila Ibram (27), who was originally from Romania, was stabbed at her apartment in Limerick city on April 4th, 2023.
She had been stabbed five times – twice in the face, once in the chest, once in the abdomen and once in the forearm, which appeared to be a defensive injury.
McDowell told the hearing in May last year that Shamel had arranged by text to meet Geila Ibram for sex.
“He arrived at the flat and paid her €100. She gave the money to a colleague,” McDowell said. “Several seconds later this colleague heard screams and it was apparent Shamel had stabbed Ms Ibram.
Judge dismisses woman’s assault charge, saying alleged victim was not ‘innocent as driven snow’
“The fatal injury was to the chest, which went through her lungs and entered her heart. Death was a result of blood loss due to multiple stab wounds.”
Shamel fled the scene and went to Dublin before heading by bus to Belfast. The PSNI stopped him in a car on the Malone Road in south Belfast just before 3.30pm on April 6th, 2023.
During interviews with police, he said he had gone to the escort to “satisfy his sexual needs” because of something he had viewed online.
When Shamel was arrested, the PSNI seized a rucksack and found a notebook that contained a handwritten letter to his mother in which he expressed a desire to “sacrifice his life to Allah”. The court heard the bag also contained a USB stick that contained alleged terrorist-related videos of executions, dismemberment, encouragement to support Jihad, and instructions on how to construct and detonate an improvised explosive device.
McDowell said there were also videos of suicide bombers.