Drive-by gang get life for the killing of teen over tyre feud
SEVEN men have been jailed for life for the murder of a law student shot dead in a feud between two businessmen.
Aya Hachem, 19, was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ when she was killed in a botched drive-by shooting.
Tyre firm boss Feroz Suleman, 40, had arranged the killing of a car wash owner who had also started selling tyres. But the gunman he hired shot dead innocent passer-by Aya instead.
He was jailed for a minimum of 34 years at Preston crown court yesterday.
The judge, Mr Justice Turner, said Suleman, of Blackburn, was ‘the driving force behind the whole deadly enterprise and followed through this plan with obsessive determination’.
‘While in prison, you commented you were the captain of the ship and, if you were to go down, everyone would down with you. How right you were,’ he added.
Salford university student Aya, whose family fled from violence-hit Lebanon for a ‘safer life’ in the UK, was shot on May 17 last year.
She was struck by a bullet while walking to a supermarket in Blackburn to buy food for her family to eat when they broke their Ramadan fast. She later died in hospital.
Gunman Zamir Raja, 33, who agreed to carry out the shooting for £1,500, was jailed for 34 years. His driver Anthony Ennis, 31, must serve 33 years behind bars. Their
accomplices Ayaz Hussain, 36, Abubakr Satia, 32, Uthman Satia, 29, and 26-yearold Kashif Manzoor were also jailed for life. In a victim impact statement, Aya’s father Ismail said his daughter was ‘a shining star’ in their family’s lives. ‘Aya was destined to do well in life. I once told her she would be the prime minister,’ he added.
‘The day Aya was murdered is the day they killed her whole family. We will never see her graduate, get married, have a family of her own. Without her we have no life.’ Her mum, Samar Salame, added: ‘Aya’s dream was to help the oppressed. They have taken a piece of my soul, killed my dreams and crushed them into pieces.’