‘We’re resigned to delay’
FATHER OF YASSAR YAQUB, WHO WAS SHOT DEAD BY ARMED POLICE, EXPECTS FURTHER WAIT FOR INQUEST
THE father of Yassar Yaqub who was shot dead by armed police more than three years ago says he is resigned to yet further major delays in finding out the truth about his son’s death.
Yassar, 28, was killed in a car near the M62 at Ainley Top in January 2017 and his father Mohammed, of Crosland Moor, has fought a relentless campaign against West Yorkshire Police saying his son was unlawfully killed.
At the end of December last year a police watchdog revealed it had completed its investigation into the fatal shooting and would be sharing its findings with West Yorkshire Police and HM Coroner.
The inquest should have been ready to schedule – until the coroner’s court was shut down by the
Coronavirus pandemic.
Inquests are held in Bradford and a statement on Bradford Council’s website says: “Due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) our courts are closed until further notice.
“All inquests scheduled up to September 2020 have been adjourned.”
In 2018 a man was jailed for firearms offences after a loaded pistol was found in the vehicle Yassar was a passenger in.
He was in one of two cars travelling in convoy when four unmarked police vehicles stopped them at junction 24 of the M62.
During the trial of the car’s driver, Moshin Amin at Leeds Crown Court in December 2018 jurors heard that Yassar ignored the instructions of the armed officers.
The court was told he crouched down and as he brought his hands back up the officer was “under no doubt he was holding a handgun.”
Yassar was shot through the windscreen.
Mohammed Yaqub, who has fiercely denied claims made in court that his son was a drug dealer, said he was resigned to further delays.
“I think it will be longer than September,” he said. “It’s almost three-and-a-half-years since my son was killed.
“The police have been shielded by the delay but my day will come eventually. The authorities think they can play these games with Yassar’s dad but we know the answers before the inquest.
“There’s nothing that they can tell me that I don’t know already. It’s what happens after the inquest that I am more interested in.
“For those responsible for my son’s death they can’t keep me waiting forever, there has to be a day of reckoning eventually.”