Date set for trial of TikTok influencer and seven others

A new date has been set for the murder trial of TikTok influencer Mahek Bukhari and seven other people.

The defendants will go on trial at Leicester Crown Court om April 17.

A trial started in October but in early December the entire jury was discharged by Mr Justice Saini due to internal irregularities involving the jury members.

A court order bans any further reporting of what happened with the jury. All eight defendants, who had been in custody since March or earlier, had been facing a long wait for the trial to start again from scratch but on December 14 Mahek, her mother Ansreen and four of the others facing murder charges – Natasha Akhtar, Mohammed Patel, Ammeer Jamal and Sanaf Gulammustafa – were released from custody.

The conditions of the release included the requirement for them to return to court when the trial restarts.

The trial will start all over again with a new jury.

The case involves Saqib Hussein, a 21-year-old from Oxfordshire, who was being driven by his friend Hashim Ijazuddin, also 21. Both died in a crash on the A46 north of Leicester.

All eight defendants face charges of murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter over the deaths.

The eight defendants, who deny the charges against them, are: Natasha Akhtar, 22, of Alum Rock Road, Birmingham; Mahek Bukhari, 23, and Ansreen Bukhari, 47, both of George Eardley Close, Tunstall; Raees Jamal, 22, of Lingdale Close, Loughborough; Rekan Karwan, 28, of Tomlin Road, Northfields, Leicester; Mohammed Patel, 20, of Braybrooke Road, Northfields, Leicester; Sanaf Gulammustafa, 22, of Littlemore Close, Crown Hills, Leicester; and Ameer Jamal, 27, of Catherine Street, Belgrave, Leicester.