Ibrahim Ali sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder of Burnaby girl

Ibrahim Ali has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Ali was convicted in December in the first-degree murder of a 13-year-old girl, whose name is covered by a publication ban, in 2017.

A jury took less than 24 hours to reach its guilty verdict at the end of an eight-month trial, which heard Ali’s DNA matched semen found in the girl’s body.

The man’s sentencing hearing began Friday in Vancouver, after victim impact statements were read from several people, including the girl’s father, brother, and school and family friends.

The girl’s family told the B.C. Supreme Court of their overwhelming grief.

The father, who delivered a recorded impact statement by video, described how he was in China when he first heard that his daughter was missing, then was found dead.

“I felt like a light suddenly went out and my mind went black,” the man said. He told to court he hid in his bathroom and contemplated suicide, and that he bashed his head on a wall “until blood streamed down my face and I couldn’t stand.”

But shortly after the father’s statement began, Ali, who had been listening via video link, was seen putting down the phone and stopped listening. He proceeded to pace in his cell.

At one point, Ali was also seen sticking his fingers in his ears, seemingly to tune out what he was hearing.

In another impact statement, the girl’s brother said his mother was “utterly destroyed” by the murder, and that he was haunted by his final text messages to sister, when he said he was unkind.

Ali also addressed the court Friday, saying he didn’t go to the park the day the girl was found, and that he didn’t kill her.

He went on to say that what was happening to him was unfair.

The girl’s body was found in Burnaby’s Central Park in July 2017 and Ali was arrested the next year.

Brother says sentencing will allow family to ‘begin to move on’

Some of the victim’s family members were in court Friday to witness Ali’s sentencing.

The girl’s brother says it’s been a torturous process since his sister was sexually assaulted and murdered.

Now, he says he will be able to somewhat move forward, knowing justice was served.

“I can’t say that this is the end, this is closure, but it is as close as it will come, for this chapter to end and for us to begin to move on. This is where it’s going to start,” the brother told reporters after Ali’s sentencing.

“This is finally over. That’s the outcome that we wanted. Now, is it justice? I think it is. We did get, to the extent of the law, I think we got our justice, and we are very happy about that.”

With files from The Canadian Press