Appeals dismissed for three TikTok murder case accomplices in Leicester car chase

Three people convicted of manslaughter in the 2022 A46 fatal car chase have had their appeals rejected. The case involved TikTok influencer Mahek Bukhari.

Court of Appeal rejects bids to overturn manslaughter convictions

Three people convicted of manslaughter in connection with the deaths of two men during a high-speed car chase in Leicestershire in 2022 have had their appeals dismissed, bbc.com reports.

Ameer Jamal, Sanaf Gulammustafa and Natasha Akhtar had each been found guilty of manslaughter following the deaths of Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, on the A46 in February 2022. The pair were killed when their car left the dual carriageway after being pursued by a group of vehicles.

Prosecutors at a three-month murder trial at Leicester Crown Court argued that Hussain and Ijazuddin had been deliberately rammed off the road. The chase followed a confrontation at a car park in Leicester, where Hussain had threatened to expose a long-running affair he had been having with Ansreen Bukhari — a married woman — using sexually explicit material.

Ansreen Bukhari and her daughter Mahek Bukhari, a TikTok influencer, were convicted of murder alongside Rekhan Karwan and Raees Jamal. Ameer Jamal, Gulammustafa and Akhtar, all passengers in one of the pursuing vehicles, were found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

At a Court of Appeal hearing in London on Tuesday, Lord Justice Jeremy Baker, sitting with Mr Justice Bryan and Judge Simon Hirst, dismissed the trio's bids to have those convictions overturned.

Lawyers for the three had argued that while they each admitted to being passengers in the car, they had no knowledge of any plan to harm Hussain and were unaware their vehicle would ram his. They further contended that the trial judge had failed to identify the "base" unlawful act — a requirement under unlawful act manslaughter — in the questions put to jurors.

The judges rejected that argument. Lord Justice Baker said: "We consider that in the context of this case, where there was no question but that those involved in the plan were intent on inflicting unlawful violence upon Saqib Hussain, these questions appropriately set out the matters which the jury had to consider."

He added that the jury would have been fully aware the common plan referred to at trial was the plan to attack Hussain when he arrived at the Tesco car park, with the intent to kill him or cause him serious harm.

After a separate Court of Appeal challenge over sentencing last year, Ameer Jamal had received 12 years and eight months in prison, Gulammustafa 12 years and nine months, and Akhtar nine years and eight months.

Among those convicted of murder, Mahek Bukhari was originally given a life sentence with a minimum term of 31 years and eight months, later reduced by the Court of Appeal to 26 years and 285 days. Ansreen Bukhari was sentenced to life with a minimum of 26 years and nine months. Rekhan Karwan received a life sentence with a minimum of 26 years and 10 months, while Raees Jamal was jailed for life with a minimum term of 31 years.

Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)