The father of student Aiia Maasarwe who was murdered in the north Melbourne suburb on Bundoora in January has paid a moving tribute to his daughter as her killer was finally jailed.
Codey Hermann, 21, was jailed for 36 years – with a non-parole period of 30 years – over the horrific murder of the 21-year-old Palestinian student on January 16. Aiia’s sister was on the phone to her when she was attacked on her way home from a tram station.
Now her father Saeed has remembered his daughter for her happiness and her love of helping people, while speaking outside court. He insisted he doesn’t want the focus to be on revenge, but instead on keeping other women safe on the streets at night.
“This is not our focus, we need to care for the society, for the people, for the ladies. You need to be able to go back out and go home,” he said.
The sentence comes as Aiia’s family launch the Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program for Project Rozana, an organisation that builds better understanding between Israelis and Palestinians through health initiatives. According to a post on Mycause.com.au, the Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program will provide financial support to Palestinian physicians training in Israeli hospitals, so they can address the needs of their people.
The inaugural Fellowship will be awarded to Dr Khadra Salami – a senior paediatrician in haematological-oncology – who will undertake a two-year paediatric bone marrow transplantation training program at Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem. Saeed said that he wants his daughter’s memory and legacy to spread love and hope, adding that Aiia would be humbled to have a medical fellowship program established in her name.
Speaking to 3AW on Monday, Saeed said he hopes “we can make something to remember or continue… what Aiia dreamed for the next generation of people, it would be great”.
Aiia’s sister Noor Maasarwe also spoke of the family’s wish to focus on helping other women in the future, rather than their tragedy, just hours ago. “I don’t want her to be remembered as the victim of this crime,” Noor told radio station Plus61J on Monday. “She is not just [another] life that has been taken away off the street. She was very special, she was very energetic, full of life, always happy and very open-minded.”
“It’s just very sad that her life-long dream came true but only after she is not here,” Noor added, referring to the scholarship set up in Aiia’s name.
An ongoing La Trobe scholarship honouring Aiia Maasarwe will serve as a lasting tribute to an ‘intelligent, warm and generous student,’ says @johnnodvc, announcing the joint initiative with Victorian Premier @DanielAndrewsMP: https://t.co/u0juMQWUto pic.twitter.com/jBwcjXi3Zr
— La Trobe University (@latrobe) October 28, 2019
According to multiple reports, Victorian Supreme court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth referred in her sentencing remarks to the devastating effects the murder has had on Aiia’s family. “Women should be free to walk the streets alone without fear of being violently attacked by a stranger,” she said.
Prosecutor Patrick Bourke had initially asked for the killer be jailed for life over the “vicious and violent and depraved” attack which showed a “complete and utter disregard for the humanity of the victim”.
Australia was rocked by the news of Aiia’s brutal murder in January this year. The student was raped and murdered in the north Melbourne suburb of Bundoora after getting off a tram. Her body was discovered outside a shopping centre at about 7am on January 16 by passers-by on their morning commute.
The La Trobe University student had Facetimed her sister as she walked from the station to her accommodation, following a night out at a local comedy club, and was on the phone at the time she was attacked by Hermann. Appearing on Channel 10’s The Project just days after his daughter’s death in January, an emotional Saeed said: “She was like (an) angel, even when she was born. The first day, from the beginning everything special, really, the smile, the face. Very smart when she’s very, very young.”
He added that, despite what happened, he stood by Aiia’s decision to move to Melbourne, after she transferred from Shanghai University on an exchange program. “This is our job (as) the parents,” he said. “We need to give to our child the best as we can. To give them more opportunity… This is the way we need to make (the) world more beautiful and more nice and have (a) more colourful future.”
To donate to the Aiia Maasarwe Memorial Medical Fellowship Program for Project Rozana, visit the fundraising page here.
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