Oldham man freed as verdict ruled ‘unsafe’

AN OLDHAM man found guilty of murder under controversial “joint enterprise” laws has had his “unsafe” conviction quashed by top judges.

Arfan Rafiq (26), of Villa Road, was handed a life sentence after a jury at Manchester Crown Court found he was one of a group of men who planned the shooting of shopkeeper Nasar Hussain — who was gunned down in Eccles in 2009.

But on the same day as MPs announced new guidance on gang killings, three senior Appeal Court judges overturned Mr Rafiq’s murder conviction on the grounds the jury’s findings were unclear.

Lord Justice Pitchford told the court 30-year-old Mr Hussain, known as Nasar Shazad, was shot four or five times in the chest by sub-machine gun-toting Simeon Henderson, while he was working at Brookhouse Wines, in Brookhouse Avenue, in July 2009.

The killing was believed to be part of a feud between rival gangs in Bolton.

The court heard Henderson admitted carrying out the shooting, but named a number of men he said put him up to the job before “setting him up”.

The judge said Henderson told police Mr Rafiq brought the gun to him shortly before the killing, something Mr Rafiq has always denied.

Mr Rafiq was found guilty of murder under joint enterprise laws, but was acquitted by the jury of unlawful possession of a prohibited firearm.

His lawyers brought his case to London’s Court of Appeal claiming the two verdicts were “inconsistent” and the joint enterprise basis for the murder charge was flawed.

Lord Justice Pitchford, sitting with Mr Justice Royce and Mrs Justice Sharp, today quashed Mr Rafiq’s conviction after ruling it “unsafe”.

The judge said: “We are ultimately concerned with the safety of the verdict returned upon count 3 (murder)... the appellant is in a position of not knowing on what basis he could have been convicted.

“A further troubling aspect of his conviction is that, in rejecting the prosecution case on the count of unlawful possession of a prohibited firearm, the real possibility exists that the jury also rejected features of supporting evidence upon which the prosecution relied.

“This court cannot therefore conclude, in the circumstances, that the verdict on count 3 was safe.”

Prosecutors were given two weeks in order to apply for a retrial.

Co-accused Mohammed Hafiz, of Cheetham Hill, lost an appeal against his murder conviction and Akmal Afzal, of Bolton, failed in a bid to have his conviction for the firearms offence overturned.