Court convicts seven men guilty of murdering Blackburn law student

SEVEN men have been found guilty of murdering a teenager who was mistakenly shot dead during a feud between two tyre firm owners, reports said on Tuesday (3), adding that the men will be sentenced on Thursday (5).

As per Lancashire police, seven men have been convicted of murdering Aya Hachem, 19, and the attempted murder of the intended target, Pachah Khan, then 30, also from Blackburn, following a twelve-week trial at Preston Crown Court.

Hachem was shot dead in a bungled drive-by in Blackburn during a feud between long-time bitter rivals and tyre firm owners Feroz Suleman and Pachah Khan. 

The Salford University student was out buying food for her family to eat after breaking their Ramadan fast when she was hit by a bullet intended for Khan on May 17 last year. 

Passers-by tried to help Hachem but she died at the scene in the town’s King Street.

She was simply "in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Preston Crown Court was told, as the long-running feud between the neighbouring businesses culminated in the shooting.

Seven of the eight people who were on trial at Preston Crown Court were convicted of Hachem's murder.

Suleman, 40, of Blackburn along with accomplices Kashif Manzoor, 26, Ayaz Hussain, 35, Abubakr Satia, 32, all of Blackburn; Zamir Raja, 33, of Stretford; Anthony Ennis, 31, of Partington, and Uthman Satia, 29, of Great Harwood, are convicted in the murder case.

An eighth defendant, Judy Chapman, 26, of Great Harwood, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and will be sentenced in early October.

Earlier, jurors had been told that the friction between the two businessmen had started over nothing more serious than a decision by one of them in 2019 to begin selling tyres, despite other's objections, reports said.

Matters deteriorated in December of that year when one of the rivals' tyres were set ablaze in the early hours of the morning, leading Suleman to hire hitman Raja to kill Khan which eventually led to the botched-up shooting.

In a long-running investigation, Lancashire police had arrested 23 people and travelled to Glasgow, Dublin and London to piece together the crime, as well as to Spain and Portugal during an international manhunt to locate Raja and Ennis, who had both fled the country.

Hachem's family – who had moved to the UK from Lebanon – said she had been training to be a barrister.

“We are so proud of you and we miss you so much,” they said. “You loved life and despite all the struggles and barriers that we faced in this country, it did not stop you from contributing to your community and charities."