An Afghan man convicted of murdering a Romanian woman in Limerick has admitted to possessing terrorist material found at the time of his arrest
A man serving a life sentence for the murder of a woman in Limerick has pleaded guilty to a terrorism-related offence after a letter was found in which he said he wanted to “sacrifice his life to Allah”.
Habib Shah Shamel, 29, an Afghan national who had been living on Cecil Street in Limerick, appeared at Belfast Crown Court and pleaded guilty to a terrorism-related offence after material including jihadist propaganda and instructions for building explosives was found in his possession at the time of his arrest.
He arrived in Dublin in 2020 and went on to make an asylum claim.
Murder of Geila Ibram
Shamel’s terrorism case is directly linked to his 2023 murder of Geila Ibram, a 27-year-old woman from Romania.
Ibram was found dead at an apartment on Dock Road in Limerick on 4 April 2023, having suffered multiple stab wounds, including injuries to her face, chest and abdomen, as well as a defensive wound to her forearm.
During interviews, Shamel said he had visited the sex worker after seeing an ad online to “satisfy his sexual needs”, with prosecutors saying that he began stabbing her within seconds of arriving.
“The fact that he stabbed her within seconds of meeting Ms Ibram invites the obvious inference that he came there to kill her,” the prosecutors argued.
After the attack, Shamel fled Limerick, travelling first to Dublin and then by bus to Belfast. On 6 April 2023, the PSNI stopped a car he was travelling in on the Malone Road in south Belfast.
It was at the time of his arrest that police seized a rucksack containing a notebook with a handwritten letter to his mother, in which he spoke of wanting to give his life for his faith (Islam) and”sacrifice his life to Allah”.
The same bag held a USB stick containing what was described in court as terrorist-related material, including videos of executions and dismemberment, content encouraging support for jihad, and instructions on constructing and detonating an improvised explosive device.
Shamel pleaded guilty to Ibram’s murder and was formally sentenced in May 2025, when a judge imposed a mandatory life sentence, with a further hearing to follow to determine the minimum term he must serve before he can be considered for release.
Shamel was first charged over the material found in the rucksack in 2024, when he was remanded in custody and appeared before Belfast Magistrates’ Court on charges of preparing terrorist acts, possessing articles for use in terrorism, and possessing documents or records likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. He has never appeared at any hearing in person, taking part via video link on each occasion.
