A takeaway man was brutally killed on the street by a rival restaurant owner after two businesses entered into a rather violent dispute. Foyjur Rahman, 44, stands trial for murder at the Old Bailey, and is accused of being involved in a knife attack that resulted in the death of Abdul Samad, 25, in 1997.
"This defendant is shown by the available evidence to have been present and participated in this attack," said prosecutor Mark Ellison QC. Samad was lured to the house of then-Solicitor General Lord Falconer, with a fake food order on May 21, 97. He was attacked by masked men before he could knock on the door of the house, and chased through the streets, eventually hit by a meat cleaver and a knife. The victim is also reported to have shouted a warning at a stumped passer-by saying, "He's got a knife. He wants to kill me. Be careful."
The attack took place after Samad, who ran takeaway Curry in a Hurry, was asked by a group of Bengali businessmen in east London to be an intermediary in a dispute with the Stoke Newington Boys, and he refused to get involved. He suffered 18 separate chopping and knife wounds in the attack and died in the early hours of the following morning from a heart attack during emergency surgery. "The victim had resisted the pressure and declined to get involved and he had been threatened with violence, but still he refused to get involved. He said he had already declined to help and he wasn't going to change his mind, he said he couldn't and wouldn't help and he didn't want to help," said Ellison.
Rahman continues to deny participating in the murder, insisting he had nothing to do with the killing. The trial continues.
