Killer’s lover tried to help him flee UK
THE girlfriend of a murderer bought herself and her partner one-way tickets to Marrakesh but was arrested at Heathrow Airport while trying to flee the country.
Aseel Arar, 35, tried to help her boyfriend, Abdulgalil Aldobhani, 22, and his brother, Mustafa Aldobhani, 21, flee from Cardiff after they murdered 18-year-old Fahad Nur, who was stabbed to death in a lane near Park Place, Cathays, on June 2 last year.
The brothers and their friend Shafique Shaddad, 25, later received life sentences after being found guilty of Fahad’s murder, at Cardiff Crown Court in February.
Arar had tried to prevent the Aldobhani brothers from being detected by police and asked a friend to drive her from her home in Birmingham to Cardiff to collect and bring them back to the West Midlands.
A trial at Cardiff Crown Court previously heard that Arar, nicknamed “Ace”, contacted friend Anika Elias on June 2 and asked her to drive to the Welsh capital to pick up her boyfriend.
They left Birmingham at 9.30pm in Ms Elias’ Toyota on June 3. When they arrived at their destination Arar got out of the car and hugged Abdulgalil Aldobhani, before they got back in the car along with Mustafa Aldobhani.
The arrived in Birmingham in the early hours of June 4, and Ms Elias waited outside a house in Shadowbrook Lane for 10 minutes while the brothers saw their family before dropping them at a house in Gilbert Road.
At 10am the next day, Arar asked Ms Elias to take the three of them to The Collection Hotel in Hagley Road.
Arar booked and paid for a room for the brothers, but when they arrived at the hotel it was too early to check in so Ms Elias drove them to the city centre.
The defendant later contacted Ms Elias and asked her to take her to Peterborough to pick up Aldobhani’s passport, but she was unable to do so.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday heard that Arar and the brothers left the hotel, and Arar paid for one-way flights to Marrakesh, in Morocco, for herself and Abdulgalil Aldobhani and made arrangements for someone to drive them to Heathrow.
When they arrived at the London airport at around 6am on June 5, they were met by police and arrested.
Arar pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender but she was found guilty by a jury in February this year.
Defence barrister Christopher Rees said Arar had been involved in a “clandestine” relationship with Aldobhani.
He said: “It was the actions of a girlfriend acting out of a misguided sense of loyalty and love.”
Sentencing, Mr Justice Nicholas Hillard said there was no option but to send Arar immediately to custody.
Arar, of Middle Park Road, Bournville, Birmingham, was jailed for a total of 27 months.