The Project host left in tears after heartwrenching interview
Lisa Wilkinson sat down with the family of murdered University student Aiia Maasarwe on Thursday night in a heart wrenching interview.
As the panel watched the heartfelt clip of grief-stricken father Saeed and sister Noor, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.
The jubilant young woman who was killed by Codey Herrmann, 21, left a dark cloud over the family’s head who described their daughter and sister as a “beautiful girl”.
The family of Aiia spoke with Wilkinson following the sentence of Herrmann this week, who will be jailed for 36 years for the rape and murder of the 21-year-old.
While Herrmann showed no emotion when the sentence was given, Aiia’s family’s tears and words spoke for Australia.
“The pain inside is very big. She was happy. She was positive. She liked life. She liked to help anyone. She looked at people, doesn’t matter which village and which nation and which colour,” Saaed said.
He added the pain of losing his daughter will never leave him.
“Even her best friend in Melbourne here, she was very grateful that she had the chance to meet her and to learn from her. She was very grateful for that,” he said.
Her sister Noor remained quiet throughout most of the interview, but wore a badge with a photo of Aiia.
She says she had plans to visit her sister who was studying abroad - maintaining her first visit to Melbourne would have been under extremely different circumstances had it not been for her murder.
“Does that give you strength?,” Wilkinson asked of the badge, to which Noor said, “She was supposed to be visiting with us – it is just a way to show as if I had brought her here.”
Herrmann read out a letter of apology to Aiia’s family, and concluded his letter with the words, “Don’t give into hate, like I did.”
“We don’t hate the people. Never with don’t hate the people. We wish the people just good. Even for him, we wish to be normal and to be positive people. We don’t want anyone to be in this situation,” Saeed said when asked about the comment.
Noor says the family is moving forward - as her sister would have wanted.
“There is no other direction. I don’t think Aiia wants us to just to stay in the dark and be sad. She would be very sad if she sees that. She would want us to be happy and live in the moment and enjoy our life, just as what she did.”
The heartwrenching segment left the entire Project panels in tears.
Hamish McDonald spoke to the audience on behalf of his co-hosts - his face glistening with tears.
“It is really impossible to sort of say anything that means anything after viewing that. But I think it is fair to say that we all just feel so terribly sorry that we didn’t keep her safe,” he said.