(UK) Khalid Rashad today has been jailed for life for arranging a hit on a fellow Muslim who was found shot dead in his car last year in North London.
48-year-old Abdul Hadi Arwani was found shot to death in his car last April. At the time it was presumed that the Syrian government had carried out the hit. However, diligent investigations by the police revealed that the hitman was actually Jamaican Leslie Cooper who was an associate of Rashad.
It seems that Arwani and Rashad had set up a mosque together in Acton, but when the property prices went through the roof, resulting in the value of the mosque quadrupled to over £4 million, Rashad got greedy. He first changed all the locks, leaving Arwani unable to enter a building he paid for, and then replaced Arwani, who was the imam, with another Jamaican who was behind an attempted coup in Jamaica 20 years ago. Arwani in turn turned to the courts in which to challenge Rashad's mosque grab. Rashad, not happy with a legal objection to his financial inspired power grab, decided to turn to murder in which to solve his problems, and so Hadi Arwani was murdered.
In court, Rashad tried to play the victim, claiming he was set up by MI5 when explosives and ammunition were found at his house after he refused to become a spy. However, as mentioned, the police did their homework, including tracing the footsteps of the gun who topped up an unmarked phone to another shop where he topped up his home gas bill. Searching his phone found pictures of him showing off with the murder weapon and communications between him and Rashad.
Which is why both received 32 years minimum behind bars. Seen as Rashad is 63 and Cooper is 38, it would appear that both will never see the light of day as free men again. Oh, hang on, this is the UK, where a couple sentenced to a minimum of 47 years behind bars for murdering a child get to go out on a shopping trip together 5 months into their sentence.
As Rashad is the brother of Christian Liz Mitchell, the lead singer in the 1970s band Boney M, I feel that this Boney M record sums up this story to a tee.
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| Khalid Rashad |
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| Abdul Hadi Arwani |
In court, Rashad tried to play the victim, claiming he was set up by MI5 when explosives and ammunition were found at his house after he refused to become a spy. However, as mentioned, the police did their homework, including tracing the footsteps of the gun who topped up an unmarked phone to another shop where he topped up his home gas bill. Searching his phone found pictures of him showing off with the murder weapon and communications between him and Rashad.
Which is why both received 32 years minimum behind bars. Seen as Rashad is 63 and Cooper is 38, it would appear that both will never see the light of day as free men again. Oh, hang on, this is the UK, where a couple sentenced to a minimum of 47 years behind bars for murdering a child get to go out on a shopping trip together 5 months into their sentence.
As Rashad is the brother of Christian Liz Mitchell, the lead singer in the 1970s band Boney M, I feel that this Boney M record sums up this story to a tee.
