An alleged Islamic State supporter accused of murdering a respected imam is being hunted by police after fleeing to Turkey days after the killing, a court has heard.
Mohammed Abdul Kadir, 24, bludgeoned Jalal Uddin, 71, to death because he viewed his use of healing amulets as “black magic”, jurors were told.
The second day of the trial at Manchester crown court heard that Kadir “drained his bank account” and flew to Istanbul via Copenhagen three days after the killing in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, told the jury that efforts to trace Kadir had proved unsuccessful, which he said was “hardly surprising given that Istanbul has often been used as a staging post to Syria”.
Uddin, a well-liked Muslim leader in Rochdale, was beaten to death with a hard object, believed to be a hammer, in a children’s playground by Kadir on 18 February, jurors have heard.
The imam was left with head and facial fractures so severe that his skull was crushed into his brain, the court was told.
Kadir and his co-accused, Mohammed Hussain Syeedy, 21, spent months watching Uddin before murdering him out of “hatred and intolerance”, jurors heard.
Described as “quiet, dignified and well respected”, Uddin wore an amulet known as a taweez that some believe protects the wearer against evil.
However, Isis forbids the practice, considering it to be “black magic”, the court heard. The prosecution claims the taweez gave Syeedy and Kadir their motive to murder Uddin.
Professor Robert Gleave, an expert in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, told jurors of the verses found in the taweez that Uddin was wearing when he died: “Some of them are for good fortune but some are for protection from evil, the ability of the taweez to ward off evil spirits in the life of the wearer.
“This quite possibly is a means whereby the wearer would be protecting himself from the intervention of evil spirits.”
The taweez – a piece of paper covered in tinfoil-like wrapping – was found in Uddin’s clothing after his death.
Appearing as an expert witness for the Crown, Gleave was asked about a text message sent by Syeedy that said “burn it” after being told that a friend had found Uddin’s “stash” of taweez notes in the mosque where he prayed.
Gleave confirmed that Salafi Muslims – the ultra-conservative strain of Islam practiced by Isis – believe in burning taweez whenever it is found. He added, however, that the text message was not proof that Syeedy was a Salafi Muslim.
Jurors were also shown four black arm patches found in Syeedy’s house, featuring the Islamic shahada quotation above a Kalashnikov rifle or a curved sword.
The emblem, Gleave said, had “increasingly been associated with various jihadi movements”.
Greaney told jurors on Wednesday that Syeedy had recently renewed his passport but had remained in the UK.
Syeedy was spotted giving his Vauxhall Astra – which he allegedly used to drive Kadir to and from the children’s playground where Uddin was murdered – a “thorough clean, an event that was unusual”, said Greaney.
Jurors were told that Kadir travelled back to his Oldham home after the killing while Syeedy returned to the murder scene, where a crowd had gathered.
“The prosecution case is that the defendant [Syeedy] was on the street to see what was going on, so that he and Kadir could judge their next step,” Greaney said.
In the hours that followed the murder, which took place at 8.42pm, Kadir and Syeedy exchanged a number of phone calls, the jury heard. Syeedy drove to Oldham to pick up Kadir before they both returned to Rochdale, near the murder scene, and later drove the alleged killer back.
Jurors heard that Syeedy gave a statement to police when he was arrested four days after the murder that said: “I am not guilty of any offence in relation to the death of Mr Jalal Uddin. I make this statement believing it to be true and [that it] may be produced in evidence.”
Greaney told the jury that Syeedy would claim he did not know Kadir intended to harm Uddin when he dropped the alleged killer off at the gates of the children’s playground.
However, Greaney told the jury: “Our submission is that the combination of circumstances demonstrates beyond doubt that Mohammed Hussain Syeedy intentionally assisted and encouraged an attack by Kadir upon Jalal Uddin that was intended to cause that man really serious harm, if not kill him. If you are sure of that, the defendant will be guilty of murder.”
