LONDON: During the trial of Muhammad Gohir Khan, charged with conspiracy to murder Netherlands-based exiled Pakistani blogger and activist Ahmad Waqass Goraya, the jury was informed that the accused was offered 0.1 million Pounds Sterling for this deal and he received 5,000 Pounds initial payment.
Waqass Goraya is Netherlands-based blogger and social activist. During the third day of trial, shocking details of funds transfer, planning of murder, and conversation between the key suspects and the apparent master-mind and middleman Muzammil surfaced.
A middleman identified as Muzammil, with his nicknames, Mudz, Zed and Papa on Whatsapp, remained in touch with Gohir Khan over several months in 2021 when the two discussed the murder plan as well as method and amount of payment for this nasty mission.
Muzamil paid nearly £5000 pounds into an Allied Bank account belonging to a Muhammad Amin Asif in Chiniot, Pakistan. The money, according to the Crown Prosecution Service said, was part of the deal between Khan and the middleman Muzammil, to kill Waqas Goraya.
Gohar Khan lreceived £4888 in the UK via Hundi transfer, which he utililised to buy tickets, arrange his mandatory COVIID tests and book his stay in the Netherlands.
The middleman was wary of being traced to the bank account, and he and Khan spent days discussing how to transfer the money without being tracked down as well as what the exchange rate would be for the total amount.
The financial incentive for murder of Waqass Goraya was significant, with an offer of £100,000 payment when the task is accomplished. The defendant was in significant debt, with no clear means of paying his creditors and he became part of this deal to clear his loans. However, how both contacted each other, it is yet to be investigated.
The prosecution also outlined in detail the deal between Khan and the middleman, with an agreement of a total payment of £100,000, of which £80,000 was to be paid to the defendant and the remainder to the middleman.
The trial is set to continue this week while Khan has pleaded not guilty to the charge, and maintained that his intention was not to kill Goraya but to take the cash from the individuals in Pakistan.
Khan does not deny that he is the person identified by the police in the message exchanges as well as the CCTV footage at various locations.
Interestingly, Muhammad Gohir Khan made multiple attempts to reach Rotterdam, and even bought a knife during his visit to the Netherlands as he scouted the home and location of exiled blogger Ahmad Waqass Goraya.
Khan also repeatedly asked a middleman in Pakistan — said to be the individual who allegedly hired the defendant for the murder plot — for more information on the identity and whereabouts of the blogger.
On the second day of the trial in which Khan has been charged with conspiracy to murder, the prosecution again made its case to the jury that the defendant intended to kill Goraya. Khan has pleaded not guilty and said he wanted to take the cash — about GBP 80,000 of which an advance of GBP 5,000 was paid — but that he did not intend to kill the blogger.
The trial has revealed chilling details of Khan’s discussions with a Pakistan-based middleman identified through phone messages as Mudz, Zed or Papa. Evidence provided by the prosecution shows Khan expressing frustration at only having a mugshot and an address and demanding more money. Mudz does not give more information, and insists that “R&D is 75% of the job”.
At one point when he is in Rotterdam, Khan suggests staging a robbery at the blogger’s address after his two stake-outs at the location did not yield information. “If it’s a Paki family how do we know who it is?” the defendant asked Mudz at another instance, when the two discussed talking to neighbours or ringing the doorbell of the victim.
Mudz told Khan he would meet his contact, an unidentified individual who appears to be the one with more information on Goraya, but said not to expect more information.
The prosecution’s case also demonstrated how Covid-19 restrictions in Europe, particularly the Netherlands, thwarted the defendant’s travel plans. Khan obtained bogus PCR tests and a bogus invitation letter purporting to be from a fictitious individual Zubair Khan who the defendant said was his relative.
When he arrived at Schipol airport in Amsterdam, immigration authorities who contacted the so-called Zubair Khan became suspicious when the person telephoned hung up when asked if they knew how old Khan was. Khan was then denied entry, and returned to the UK. He later travelled to Paris by train, and then took a bus from there to Rotterdam, where the intended victim lives.
The prosecution also demonstrated to the jury that Mudz and the defendant discussed the need for a weapon. Though Mudz said no tool was required as the target was “a baby not a shark”, Khan said the tool would be purchased in the Netherlands.
Mudz said it was impossible to travel with a ‘tool’ from the UK to the Netherlands. “You’ve been watching too many action movies,” he told the defendant. Mudz emphasised that as far as he understood, a weapon of that size is not required to take out this particular target.
Khan said that without a tool it would be “more mess”.
The prosecution maintained that Khan purchased a paring knife of 19cm from a store close to Goraya’s home, and raised the question of why the defendant would purchase a knife like that if he did not intend to go ahead with the killing.
The trial is expected to continue till Feb 1.
