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British men get life for murder
02/05/2006 15:10 - (SA)
London - A British judge sentenced four men to life in prison on Tuesday after the "appalling, relentless" killing of a 24-year-old man who was beaten to death in central London.
Bobby Ilham, the son of former Pakistan international cricketer Ilham Mohiuddin, died last May after he was attacked by a mob near Leicester Square, in the heart of the city's theatre and tourist district.
The four men - 20-year-old Rashid Tabali, 22-year-old Hassan al-Soltan, 19-year-old Ahmad Alkhateeb and 24-year-old Mishal al-Fahad, all of London - were found guilty of murder and ordered to serve a minimum of 15 years.
Prosecutor Jeremy Donne said: "The men who ended his life beat him until he could no longer defend himself and kicked and stamped on his head repeatedly until he was a bloody mess and any possibility of his surviving had gone."
Act of 'appalling, relentless'
Donne said: "He suffered a very public and brutal death. He was brought to the ground, where he was subjected to a vicious and sustained beating.
"Witnesses said the attack on him was quite merciless with deliberate stamping on his head as well as kicking."
In sentencing the men at London's central criminal court, Judge David Paget called the murder an act of "appalling, relentless, unnecessary violence".
Ilham was working as an assistant bank manager and lived in south London with his parents and brothers.
In his victim impact statement to the court, Mohiuddin said the four men had destroyed the lives of the entire family.
Mohiuddin said: "They are not murderers, but serial killers, as they have killed me, as well as my wife (and) Bobby's loving brothers. A person does not go out with friends and come back in a body bag."
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