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November 22, 2005

UK: Muslim Gang Who "Killed a White Man" Found Guilty

We reported on October 11 on the Old Bailey trial of three Muslims who were alleged to have killed Christopher Yates, a computer worker, on a campus in East London. Mr Yates was returning home after celebrating a girl companion's birthday, when he was attacked by Sajid Zulfiqar, 25, Imran Maqsood, 21, and Zahid Bashir, 23 (pictured, in left to right order).

Mr Yates had his face stamped, and he died at the scene from facial injuries. The attack happened about 4.30 am in Dagenham. Sajid Zulfiqar (left, above), was heard to boast in Urdu "We have killed the white man. That will teach an Englishman to interfere in Paki business."

According to the Times, as Christopher Yates lay dying, a man named Junaid Khan stole his mobile phone. Khan has been given a sentence of community service.

Following the attack, the gang of three, who were unemployed rampaged through Ilford, damaging a car and giving racial abuse to its owner, assaulting an Asian member of staff in a curry house and also a black passer-by.

The BBC states that the three then fled to Pontefract where they were making plans to flee the country (to Pakistan from which there is no extradition treaty with Britain).

Following the verdict of guilty for charges of murder being passed on all three men on Tuesday, Mr Yates' family issued a statement. It read: "Our much-loved son, Christopher, was brutally and viciously killed with merciless ferocity. These men have robbed us of a precious son, whose whole life lay ahead of him. Although the verdict has brought some comfort to us, it can never replace the loss of our beloved son, Christopher. These are evil men and people like this should not be free to roam about our streets hurting innocent people."

The Times notes that as well as drinking all day prior to the assault, the gang had also been smoking cannabis. None of the gang showed any emotion as the guilty verdicts were read out. They were told that they each face a life sentence in jail with a recommendation that they serve a minimum of 30 years if the judge decides the motive was racist.

The three will be sentenced on Thursday. UPDATE: The men have been sentenced, but the judge has puzzlingly not stated that this is was a racist crime, despite the words of Sajid Zulfiqar. According to the BBC, the judge instead recommended that the three should serve a minimum sentence of 15 years.

Mr Yates' father, Ivor, said the family was disappointed with the minimum sentence of 15 years.

"We had hoped for perhaps 18 or 20 years, mainly because it was an unprovoked attack, very brutal and vicious."

Moya Reed, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "This has been a difficult case but has been properly prosecuted and the result is the proper result."

I feel that if the roles were reversed, and three white people had assaulted a Muslim Asian in similar fashion, the case would not have been "difficult". Racial assaults of this nature, no matter who commits them, and whom the victim, should be treated for what they are, not to be assumed to be "difficult" because the perpetrators happen to be Muslims with a racist view on the world.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 22, 2005 11:48 PM

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