Amin, R. v
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LORD JUSTICE FULFORD
- MR JUSTICE WILKIE
- MRS JUSTICE ELISABETH LAING DBE
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Evidence Law
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Dana Mohammed Amin was convicted of perverting the course of justice and preventing a public burial concerning the murder of Banaz Mahmod. Key issues included the admissibility of covert recordings and the sufficiency of evidence against Amin. The judge admitted the recordings, finding them highly probative. Amin's appeal against the conviction and application to appeal his sentence were dismissed. The court referenced previous cases and statutes and concluded that the conviction was safe and the sentence appropriate.
J U D G M E N T
LORD JUSTICE FULFORD:
Introduction
On 5 December 2013 in the Crown Court at Southwark the appellant, Dana Mohammed Amin, now aged 30, was convicted by a jury of the common law offences of perverting the course of justice (count 1) and preventing a public burial (count 2). On 6 December 2013 he was sentenced by the trial judge, His Honour Judge Beddoe QC, to 8 years' imprisonment on count 1 and to a concurrent term of 5 years' imprisonment on count 2. Before this court he appeals against conviction by the leave of the single judge and he renews his application for leave to appeal against sentence following refusal by the single judge.
The issue on this appeal
The sole issue on the appeal against conviction is the submission that the judge should not have admitted evidence relating to four conversations that were covertly recorded when two of the applicant's co-participants in this overall offending (that included the murder of the deceased) had prison visits. Whilst making admissions as regards their own involvement in the murder, they implicated the appellant in the offences with which he was charged, as set out above. The appellant was not present during the relevant conversations.
Outline
On 28 April 2006, the body of 20-year-old Banaz Mahmod, an Iraqi Kurd, was found buried in a suitcase in the back garden of a house at 86 Alexandra Road in Birmingham. A bootlace had been used as a ligature. She was identified from her dental records. She had gone missing from her home address on 24 January 2006. Her father Mahmod Babakir Mahmod, and her uncle Ari Mahmod Babakir Aga (“Ari”), were subsequently convicted of her murder on 11 June 2007, the motive being (to use the highly inappropriate expression that still has currency for murders of this kind) an "honour killing" because they did not approve of her relationship with a man by the name of Rahmat Sulemani. A close friend of Ari, Mohammed Hama, pleaded guilty to the murder. Another relative, Mohammed Ali (“Ali”), had been convicted of the murder in 2010 after being extradited from Iraq.
The prosecution allegation was that the appellant, a nephew of Ari and Mahmod Babakir Mahmod, was involved in the disposal of her body. There were a number of different strands to the Crown's case. First, reliance was placed on cell site evidence that was said to be suggestive of the appellant having been present at a meeting the night before the murder. He had travelled, it was said, to Birmingham on t