By Alan Wilson

DUNDEE BUSINESS man Mohammed Arshad, who is accused of hiring a hitman to kill his son-in-law, told an undercover police officer that he would even kill his daughter if he had to, the High Court in Edinburgh heard yesterday.

During a secretly-recorded discussion Arshad told the officer, identified in court as Peter, that he would feel no guilt about killing his daughter or son-in-law.

“There’s no way at any time guilt would come into my mind because I don’t feel guilty, it is him who is guilty. He has done this to me without my consent and even if I have to remove my daughter in a time I would still do it.

“Even if I’ve got to kill her at a time I would do it. I won’t feel guilty, no way. I have raised her for 24 years then I get this, I won’t feel guilty.”

The jury heard Arshad’s comments were secretly recorded on two tapes during separate meetings with Peter, and advocate depute Andrew McMillan told the court that it was agreed the voices on the taped discussions were those of Arshad and Peter, who had arranged to meet at Kinross Service Station on December 27, 2001.

Peter said that as part of “Operation Nile” his role was “the preservation of human life.”

“I went to receive instructions from a person…to carry out a killing, a murder, which I would be paid for,” he told the court.

Asked if it was as a “contract killer or hitman,” he replied, “Yes, that’s correct.”

Arshad was heard to say it was on his mind to “stab, stab the bastard,” and said if he had to do it himself, his aim “was to get a gun with a silencer, whatever. I want him removed…not removed so that nobody knows where he is, he’s got to be removed from this earth.”

The jury heard Arshad continue, “But the body has to be seen by the parents or whoever but he does not exist any longer.

“The situation is my daughter is, she without my knowledge had been seeing someone, without my knowledge they went and got married and now she has gone away from home with this guy, this guy is not letting her speak to me over the phone or whatever, obviously he has done this to me, I don’t know what, why I feel threatened by it.”

Peter asked, “Do you want him hurt or do you want him removed?” Arshad replied, “I want him removed, but in a way that his family would know sort of you know, not removed so that nobody knows where he is, he’s got to be removed from this earth. From this earth live.”

In the second taped conversation, recorded when the pair met again at the Swallow Hotel the following day, Arshad showed Peter photographs of Yasim and his daughter Insha.

He said he “Didn’t care a damn thing,” what type of gun or firearm was used, and said, “the damage is that I just want him dead.”

Asked again by Peter if he was sure he wanted him to kill him, he replied, “Too damn right, yeah.”

At the end of the tape the court heard the pair being confronted at their table by a senior Tayside detective who told them they were being arrested for conspiracy to murder.

Arshad’s elder daughter Tahra Arshad (27), wept openly as she told the jury that she felt her father must have been framed by someone who had a grudge against him.

Insisting her father didn’t have the ability to do the things he was being accused of, she said he had spent his life helping others.

However Ms Arshad agreed she had no actual information that he had been framed. Struggling to maintain her composure in the witness box, she agreed her father had been a founder member of Tayside Racial Equality Commission, was chairman of the Tayside Islamic Council and chairman of the Dundee Mosque and as such was an “elder statesman, one of the most senior and respected members of the Moslem community in Dundee.”

She agreed the fact her younger sister Insha had married Mr Yasin before she herself, as the elder daughter of the family, got married had caused a lot of stress and worry to the family and also caused Mr Arshad problems in the local Moslem community.

Advocate depute Andrew McMillan asked her if she thought there was any reason why her father would arrange for Mr Yasin to be killed. She replied, “I don’t think he’s got that ability, I feel that he’s been framed, he was upset at the time. There’s no way he would do something like that.”

Asked by Mr McMillan who would want to frame him she replied, “I don’t know, someone who had a grudge against him.”

The advocate depute asked if she was suggesting that the police were trying to frame him, to which she replied, “I don’t know, he’s been involved with the police several times, helping them out.”

Mr McMillan then asked, “You’re not suggesting in court that you have any information that a police officer would want to frame your father?”

She replied, “All I’m saying is that I don’t think he would do anything like that, he’s helped so many families out in the past.”

Ms Arshad told the court there had been several telephone calls to her family after it became known her sister had married Mr Yasin. Cross-examined by advocate John Simpson, she said that although it was the culture and tradition for the eldest daughter to be married first, it was not an impossibility for her younger sister to be married before her.

“My father was strict with religion, but this was culture. He wasn’t that strict,” she said.

“The problem was that she got married secretly.” She added that she had received a telephone call from a girl implying that Yasin was wanting to get married so he would get a visa to stay in the UK.

Ms Arshad agreed her father had been affected by his father’s death in Pakistan and said he had been receiving medication for diabetes for a long time.

She said the police had come to the house at one time after receiving information that her younger sister was being kept there against her will, but that had been untrue and they had left after seeing Insha was happy to remain there.

* Mohammed Arshad (49), of Landsdowne Square, Dundee, denies that on September 19, 2001, at Carseview Road, or elsewhere in Dundee, he committed a breach of the peace by means of a telephone call, conducting himself in a disorderly manner, shouted and swore at Abdullah Yasin, c/o Tayside Police, made threats of violence towards him and members of his family and threatened to burn down his home at his hand or the hand of others.

He further denies that on December 27 and 28, 2001, at Cleghorn Street, Dundee, at Moto Service Station, Kinross and the Swallow Hotel, Invergowrie, for the purpose of inciting a police officer known as Peter to murder Mr Yasin, his son-in-law, provided him with photographs of Mr Yasin and advised him that Mr Yasin was believed to reside at Highgate Close, Walsall, and could be found there or at another address or addresses unknown in Dundee, Walsall or elsewhere in the UK, and indicated to him that he wished members of Mr Yasin’s family, in particular Fasihuddin Ahmed and Ageed Fatima Ahmed assaulted and injured and he wished Mr Yasin to be murdered, requested him to commit the assaults and murder on his behalf, agree to pay him £1000 to arrange for the assaults and murder to take place and pay him £200 as a deposit for them and he did incite the police officer to assault Mr and Ms Ahmed and to murder Mr Yasim.

The trial continues.