Man jailed for role in aftermath of 2006 murder

A man who fled the UK after helping to destroy key evidence linked to a fatal shooting has been jailed 20 years after the murder.

Faiser Hussain was involved in the burning of a stolen Volvo car shortly after 20-year-old Ibrahim Ilyas was killed on a residential street in Sheffield on 3 June 2006.

Mohammed Ali was given a life sentence for murdering Ilyas in January 2007, with Hussain arrested after arriving at Manchester Airport in March this year.

At Hull Crown Court, Mrs Justice Eady sentenced Hussain to four years in prison after he admitted perverting the course of justice.

Hussain, 44, pleaded guilty to the charge on day 12 of his trial at the same court on Tuesday, where he was also accused of one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

On the direction of the judge, he was cleared of the remaining charges he faced following the guilty plea.

The sentencing hearing was told how Hussain, who was 24 at the time, had been with Ali on the afternoon of the murder when Ali threatened to kill Ilyas while carrying a metal baseball bat.

Around 90 minutes later, the victim was being driven along Abbeyfield Road in the back of a car when Ali emerged from the parked Volvo, put on a balaclava and fired six shots from a self-loading handgun at the car in view of Hussain.

Two of the victim's friends were also injured in the attack.

The Volvo was taken to Psalters Lane in Rotherham a short time later and it was set on fire.

The court was told Hussain maintained he had not burnt the car himself but that he had "assisted with the logistics" of it.

The judge said his actions had "clearly handicapped" the police investigation by destroying any forensic evidence within the vehicle.

Ali was arrested the following morning in Stockton-on-Tees, around five miles from where Hussain lived at the time.

Ali was convicted of murder and two counts of attempted murder seven months later.

Hussain fled the UK for Pakistan "some time after" the incident, the court was told.

Mitigating for Hussain, Oliver Cook said the defendant had left the country out of "concern for being a witness" and that his client had had no knowledge that the Volvo was stolen and using cloned number plates.

The victim's mother, Khadijah Ilyas, said Hussain's actions had had a "devastating lifelong impact".

In a statement read to the hearing, she said her son's family had been "denied closure" because Hussain had fled.

"When the defendant was arrested in March, the fragile peace we spent 20 years trying to rebuild was shattered in an instant," she said.

"Preparing for this trial has taken an immense physical and emotional toll."

After the sentencing, Det Ch Insp Thomas Woodward, of South Yorkshire Police, said: "Ibrahim's family have shown immense courage having to relive the painful and traumatic events surrounding his death.

"Hussain played an integral part in the planned attempt to conceal potentially vital evidence of a shocking and ruthless crime and after 20 years he probably thought he had got away with it."

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