Bury murder suspects seen ‘fist bumping and hugging’

Mohammed Afzal, known to his loved ones as “Isa” died after being stabbed eight times during an evening of violence at the Power League carpark on Market Street, Bury, on August 1 last year.

Abbas Hussain, 19, Mohammed Rayhan, also 19, and Biryan Ak, 20, were all charged with Mr Afzal’s murder and this week were brought before a trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Jamie Hamilton KC, prosecuting, said: “We make it clear at the outset that Isa Afzal began the events by being the person in the wrong, but his actions did not justify what these three defendants were to go on to do.”

The three defendants all wore suits and ties in the dock as Mr Hamilton told the jury of seven men and seven women how the prosecution said the fatal events of that evening had unfolded.

The trial opened at Manchester Crown Court (Image: Anthony Moss)

He said that on the evening of August 1 Mr Afzal had been travelling with his friends in a Jaguar towards Ramsbottom, where they had been planning to get some food.

On the way, they saw a grey Vauxhall Corsa drive past them, and Mr Afzal said he he’d had “issues” with one of the occupants.

They then followed the car to Power League with Mr Afzal telling his friends he wanted to “smash up the guy’s car”.

Mr Hamilton told the court how, once, they had followed the Corsa to Power League, Mr Afzal then got out of his car and approached it with a baseball bat in his hand and opened the door.

Hussain then got out of the car holding a knife and struck at the left side of Mr Afzal’s body, causing feathers to spill out of his feather-lined coat.

Mohammed Afzal, known affectionately as “Isa” (Image: GMP)

CCTV footage then showed Mr Afzal trying to flee, dropping his bat in the process, and Hussain chasing after him.

Rayhan was seen to pick up the bat and join in the chase before Mr Afzal was chased back to where the incident had started.

Mr Hamilton said that Hussain then looked over to Ak and pointed at Mr Afzal, prompting Ak to what is described in sports as clothes lining the victim” bringing him to the ground.

He said that the 19-year-old was then attacked on the ground by Hussain with the knife and Rayhan with the bat while Ak watched on.

Mr Hamilton said: “Isa is unable to do much to fend off this joint attack but manages to get to his feet and run away, slumping against the side of a parked vehicle before being driven away in the Jaguar.”

A police car at the scene last August (Image: Phil Taylor)

The prosecutor told the jury that the incident was witnessed by a man who challenged one of the defendants as to why he was attacking Mr Afzal, which appeared to stop it.

The witness, who had been at the complex to play football, saw what he described as a “zombie-style knife”.

He also said the defendants appeared to be “fist-bumping and hugging each other” in a “celebratory manner” and “laughing” about the amount of blood on the scene.

Back in the Jaguar, Mr Afzal told a friend he was “gone” and started to say a prayer.

He died at the scene after the car was parked on Valley Mill Lane, despite the efforts of the emergency services at around 9.49pm that evening.

Mr Hamilton told the jury how, later that same evening, five men were seen going into a house on Timperley Close in Oldham.

Hussain was then later seen in the grey Corsa at a Texaco Forecourt on Hollins Lane, also in Oldham and in the early hours of the following morning, leaving Timperley Close in a taxi.

Hussain then stopped at Chauncey Road, Failsworth, which Mr Hamilton said is where Rayhan lived at the time, before he later headed on to Manchester Airport.

The taxi driver said that Hussain claimed he had been on his way to Turkey to “get his teeth done”.

But Hussain then left the airport again later that morning and got a tram back to the Abraham Moss area in North Manchester.

Mr Hamilton said that, having first celebrated what he had done, Hussain had then tried to “flee the country”.

Hussain, formerly of Bolton, now of Windsor Crescent, Prestwich, then went to Bury Police Station on August 2, where he was arrested on suspicion of murder.

He gave no comment but, in a prepared statement, said he had acted in self-defence at the Power League carpark after Mr Afzal and another man got out of their car “wearing balaclavas”.

Hussain said they launched a violent attack on him but accepted he had stabbed Mr Azal on “two or three occasions”.

Ak, of Norman Grove, Longsight, was arrested at his home on August 4, and according to Mr Hamilton, shouted to his father he had “seen a fight, that’s it”.

He also gave police a prepared statement where he claimed Mr Afzal had said “get the thing and do them” while looking in his direction.

In a further prepared statement, Ak said his glasses had been knocked off during the incident, and he was unable to see what had happened after that.

But he claimed that anything he had done had been an attempt to “de-escalate” the incident.

Rayhan, of Chauncy Road, Failsworth, was also arrested on August 4 and claimed in a prepared statement that he had also seen Mr Afzal and another man wearing balaclavas.

He said he had picked up the baseball bat to stop anyone else from using it and that he would not have approached Mr Afzal if he knew a knife was being used.

Mr Hamilton said: “We make it clear that Isa Afzal would have found himself in the dock of a criminal court for his conduct up to the point that he ran away.

“But both law and common sense say that defending yourself or others is not an excuse for any and all violence.

“At the point in time when Isa Afzal ran away from Hussain, the incident moved into another phase.

“Hussain was no longer defending himself; he had the upper hand and wanted to exploit it.

“He was armed, Isa Afzal was not; he was no longer being attacked, Isa Afzal was being pursued.

“As they circled round and returned to where the others were, Isa Afzal posed no immediate threat to anyone there.”

Hussain, Rayhan and Ak all deny murder, while Hussain also denies possession of a knife.

The trial, before the Honourable Justice Nicolas Lavender, continues.