Nargis Riaz in Old Bailey dock denies involvement in vicious killing of a London mini-cab worker
Thursday, 25 June — Update: Not Guilty: City University law student cleared of hit man murder of ex-boyfriend [Legal Cheek]
A law student from Barking in east London allegedly hired a hit man to murder a boyfriend after he threatened her with revenge porn.
Nargis Riaz, 22 and reported to be in her second year at City University law school in London, is currently standing trial at the Old Bailey, where she denies the charge.
According to media reports today, Furnival Chambers barrister Sandip Patel QC, acting for the Crown, told jurors that Riaz hired ex-boyfriend Gulam Chowdhury to kill current boyfriend Mohammed Yasser Afzal.
It is alleged that Chowdhury, who had just been released from prison, stabbed Afzal some 20 times in what the police and prosecutors described as a frenzied attack.
According to reports, the Crown alleged that Riaz feared that Afzal was going to show sexually graphic photographs of the two of them to her parents. She had been keeping her relationship with Afzal secret because, the prosecution told the court, her parents did not approve.
A report on today’s Mail Online said that Patel told the jury that Afzal was killed in the mini-cab office he ran in east London.
“They [Riaz and Afzal] were alone as planned,” said Patel, “when Gulam Chowdhury stormed in and without warning or provocation vaulted the reception counter and in a frenzied and savage attack stabbed repeatedly the helpless Mohammed Afzal. He had no chance. Having been stabbed 20 times he promptly bled to death.”
According to the prosecution, the law student was present at the start of the attack and then waited for Chowdhury outside the cab office. Once Chowdhury had fled, Riaz is alleged to have raised the alarm.
A law school spokeswoman told Legal Cheek that City University would not comment on the case.
The Old Bailey jury heard that Chowdhury had already been convicted of murder. Riaz’s trial continues.