Blasphemy accused speaks of ordeal must visit

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 Masud Ahmad is now living with his family in Glasgow A British man jailed for "posing as a Muslim", has spoken for the first time since returning to the UK.

Masud Ahmad, 73, was arrested in Pakistan in November under blasphemy laws but fled while on bail.

The 73-year-old is part of the minority Ahmadiyya sect, who are considered heretics in Pakistan.

They were declared non-Muslim in 1974 by the Pakistan government because of their belief in a subservient prophet after Muhammad.

Members of the Ahmadiyya community helped Mr Ahmad flee Pakistan after he was granted bail at a third attempt

One of the restrictions on their religious freedom is that they cannot publicly recite the Koran.

Late last year, a young man posing as a patient visited Mr Ahmad at his homeopathy clinic in Lahore, before asking questions about religion.

"I have no business talking about religious beliefs when I am working, I am only here to help people. But he kept pushing the topic into matters about Islam", Mr Ahmad said.

The man then used a mobile phone to secretly film Mr Ahmad reading the Koran and called the police to have him arrested.

Educated in Britain, Mr Ahmad first came to the UK in the 1960s, where he set up his own watch repair business, before returning to Pakistan in 1982.

The grandfather-of-nine, now living with his children in Glasgow, was placed in a jail with other prisoners also charged under the country's blasphemy law.

Mr Ahmad's granddaughter Madiha said she had also encountered religious discrimination

He said: "It was a small cell, 8ft by about 12ft and within it a toilet. We had to sleep on the floor. The temperature was almost minus one degree in the night."

About 400 people protested outside the police station in which Mr Ahmad was being held, demanding to see him.

Small suitcase

He said: "They were shouting and chanting, 'let us kill him, let us kill him'. But I wasn't scared."

Continue reading the main story An Islamic sect founded in India in 1889, Ahmadi Muslims believe their own founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who died in 1908, was a prophetThis contradicts traditional Muslims who believe the last prophet was the Prophet Muhammad, who died in 632 Most Ahmadi followers live in the Indian sub-continentAhmadis have been the subject of sectarian attacks and persecution in Pakistan and elsewhereIn May 2010, more than 90 people were killed after an attack on two Ahmadi mosques in the city of LahoreIn 1974 the Pakistani government declared the sect non-MuslimAhmadi Muslims are led by their fifth Caliph, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who is based in Southfields, west LondonMembers of the Ahmadiyya community helped Mr Ahmad flee the country after he was granted bail at a third attempt.

It is understood no travel restrictions were put in place by police and as a dual Pakistani-British national, he was able to return to the UK.

Escaping the country quickly meant he was only able to take one small suitcase and the prayer hat he was wearing when arrested.

"I'm still a wanted man in Pakistan as I was only given bail. Ahmadis are treated like animals, I can't go back. The Mullahs (religious clerics) are grinding their teeth, wondering how I could escape them," he said.

"Ahmadis can be jailed for up to three years in Pakistan for referring to their faith as Islam, preaching or "outraging the religious feelings of Muslims."

The country has a history of taking claims of blasphemy particularly seriously.

Last month, a Christian road sweeper was sentenced to death after being convicted of using derogatory remarks against the Prophet Muhammad in a row with a Muslim friend.

In 2011, the governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was killed after being shot by one of his bodyguards.

Many were angered by the 66-year-old's defence of Asia Bibbi, a Christian woman sentenced to death under the country's blasphemy law.

As a result of such incidents, Mr Ahmad's 20-year-old granddaughter, Madiha, was concerned about how her grandfather had been coping in prison.

She said: "He'd been recovering from cancer, he's 73 years old. A jail like that is no place for someone like him to be. We were over here and so didn't know how he was."

The university student said she had also suffered discrimination in Pakistan because of her religious beliefs, but believed that things would one day change.

"They are going to pay for this, of course they are. Because they are just doing bad to people who have done nothing to them. We have never said one word of hatred to them," she said.

Having returned to the UK after 32 years, Mr Ahmad is now trying to establish a new life for himself in Scotland.

"Glasgow's nice. The weather's sometimes hard to get used to - it rains, then it's sunny, then it rains again. But it is a very nice place", he said.

"Pakistan is my motherland and you will always love your mother. But I have a freedom here which is very essential. I love my country but I can't go back. If I go back, I will be put in prison or murdered."

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Cleared Blakelock accused freed must visit

The man cleared of killing PC Keith Blakelock in the 1985 Tottenham riots has been released from prison.

Nicholas Jacobs, 45, was found not guilty on Wednesday of the murder and manslaughter of the officer who was stabbed 43 times at Broadwater Farm.

But he was kept in prison overnight as administrative offices had closed.

His solicitor Tony Meisels said his client was "relieved" to be free but his "thoughts are with PC Blakelock's widow and her children".

Outside Belmarsh Prison Mr Meisels said: "He told me he slept like a baby. He knew he was getting out this morning.

"It is one more thing the authorities have thrown at him."

Earlier Mr Meisels criticised the authorities for keeping Mr Jacobs in prison the extra night and said it was "almost like the last small laugh of the police."

'Extremely unusual'

Following the verdict Mr Jacobs was returned to Belmarsh Prison for the relevant paperwork to be carried out, but Mr Meisels said, despite ample warning, the officers involved went home.

He said: "It is extremely unusual and I've never come across it before and it's a shame.

"The comment I was told from one of the senior prison officers was that 'this case is of a high media profile and we don't want to release him in error'.

"He doesn't get the experience of walking out the front doors of the Old Bailey."

In a statement, the Ministry of Justice said it did not comment on individual cases.

It added: "Public safety is our priority and prisons must be satisfied there are no outstanding legal issues before releasing an acquitted prisoner."

Robert Hall looks at what happened on the night PC Blakelock died

PC Blakelock was attacked on the night of 6 October 1985 while protecting firefighters tackling blazes started during the riots.

He was repeatedly stabbed and attempts were made to decapitate him.

The jury at Mr Jacobs' trial heard from three witnesses who claimed they saw the then 16-year-old take part in the attack, but his defence team questioned their credibility.

Outside the prison Mr Meisels also criticised the police's use of evidence from "kickers" - witnesses in the trial who admitted attacking PC Blakelock but were given immunity if they testified.

'Never get justice'

He said. "So desperate were the police to secure a conviction that they went to great lengths to alter the rules so they could proceed with the case."

Mr Jacobs was the seventh person to be charged over PC Blakelock's death, but no-one has been successfully prosecuted for the killing.

In 1987 three men were convicted of the murder, before being freed four years later on appeal.

Retired policeman Richard Coombes, 63, who survived the Broadwater Farm attack, said: "We're very disappointed from the point of view of it doesn't give anybody the opportunity to draw a line under this and say well at least somebody's been found guilty of Keith's murder.

"I feel dreadfully, dreadfully sorry for the Blakelock family because they sat through every day of that trial and they must today be feeling that they'll never get justice for Keith."

'Get anyone'

PC Blakelock's family said in a statement issued on Wednesday: "We viewed this trial as an opportunity to see some form of justice served for Keith.

"We hope that more people are able to come forward so that some of those guilty can be brought to justice in the future."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "We accept the decision of the jury and our work to bring those responsible for Keith's murder to justice will not stop."

Meanwhile Winston Silcott, who had his 1987 conviction for murdering PC Blakelock overturned, said: "The police are bitter about what happened, that's why they brought this case.

"My conclusion is that they had promised the Blakelock family that they would get justice for him and so they were trying to get anyone they could."

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Accused 'also tried to kill mother'/must visit

26 February 2014 Last updated at 16:26  Sean Hackett with Tyrone GAA manager Mickey Harte (right) and his solicitor at the funeral A County Tyrone teenager who shot dead his father had previously attempted to throttle his mother, a court has heard.

Sean Hackett, 19, is charged with the murder of Aloysius Hackett, 60, outside the family home in Aghindarragh Road in Augher in January last year.

The 19-year-old admits that he intended to kill his father, but denies murder.

His mother Eilis told the court two months before it happened, he had thrown a cord around her neck after breaking up with his girlfriend.

Mrs Hackett told Dungannon Crown Court her son was "someone she was very proud of".

She said he "never gave us any bother" until October 2012 when she noticed he had become withdrawn.

She said she was in the garage with her son examining a leaking tumble dryer when he began sobbing and told her he had split up with his girlfriend.

Mrs Hackett said she told her son not to worry as he was still a young man and would find someone else.

She said he replied: "I don't want anybody else."

She added: "I was turning to go out of the garage when I felt a lead being thrown over my neck.

Aloysius Hackett was well-known in GAA circles in County Tyrone

"I ran out of the garage door and Sean was saying 'I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it'. I said to him: 'You did mean to do it. What's going on?'

"He said that he wanted me to go to heaven to look after him and granda."

The sobbing mother said that her son's grandfather had died some time before and Sean Hackett was very close to him.

"I told him: 'I don't want to go to heaven. I want to stay here with you."

"He said: 'I hope you will always be very proud of me'. I said that I would always be proud of him."

The jury heard that Mrs Hackett took her son into the family home where his sister Aileen was sitting in the living room.

"He told Aileen all of what he had done. Aileen kept talking to him."

'Seriously wrong'

Asked by a defence barrister if she believed her son had lured her into the garage in an attempt to kill her, she said: "Yes. He said that I could look after him better there with granda. He was extremely close to his granda."

When asked if she could explain what had happened, she said: "There is no reason at all as to why he would want to kill me.

"I thought there was something seriously wrong. We were very concerned. We didn't know what we were dealing with."

She said her husband made an appointment the following day with their family GP, who said her son did not need any medication but recommended that he see a counsellor in Omagh.

She said she and her son later drove separately to the appointment, where he spent around an hour and a half with the counsellor.

'Almost like brothers'

Mrs Hackett said that following the incident in the garage, she had found her son had changed and would increasingly spend more time out of the house.

"He would keep himself to himself and started to go out and play pool.

"He would be very snappy at times and very vague in his answers." she added.

Mrs Hackett told the jury that her son and husband, who was known as Wishie, were "almost like brothers" and that he and his father had been going to football matches since Sean was the age of three.

On the evening her husband was killed, she said everything had been normal in the house and she had left for a GAA function in Omagh.

She said she received a phone call to say "something dreadful" had happened at home, and she went to her neighbour's house where her son was talking to police officers in a bedroom.

Continue reading the main story

Throughout my life you have been a gentleman, a role model, manager and an inspirational figure to me”

End Quote Letter from Sean Hackett read out at his father's graveside She said she was told her son "wanted to speak to me in private" and the detective agreed.

"There was a single bed in the room and we lay down and hugged and cuddled each other. We were both crying," she said.

"I asked Sean did his father see him, and he said 'no'."

Mrs Hackett told the court that the day before the shooting, her son had told them he had received an invitation to play Gaelic football in the US in the summer.

She said that after his son was remanded in custody, he was granted compassionate High Court bail to attend his father's funeral while accompanied by his solicitor and Tyrone senior football manager Mickey Harte.

The court heard the family had been told that Sean Hackett had written a letter while on remand at Hydebank Young Offenders Centre in Belfast that he wanted to be read out at the funeral Mass in Augher.

However, Mrs Hackett said that it was decided that the letter would instead be read out during a graveside oration.

She then read the letter to the jury. It said: "To my special dad. This is just a few words I want to say to you as we send you to rest in heaven.

"Throughout my life you have been a gentleman, a role model, manager and an inspirational figure to me.

"All that I have done and achieved in my life I offer up to you. It is you I must thank.

"This is just a short note. He has been a great dad. I love him and I will miss him in my life."

Mrs Hackett said she tries to visit her son at least once a week at the young offenders centre.

"We were the perfect family. Sean loved his dad and vice versa. Wishie loved him."

A prosecution barrister asked her: "Have you ever ever asked him straight out the reason why he killed your husband?"

She replied: "No. I have not asked him."

Sean Hackett denies the murder charge and two others of possessing a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

The trial at Dungannon Crown Court is expected to last up to two weeks.

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