Khalid Rashad, brother of Boney M singer, jailed for life

A former director of the An Noor Cultural and Community centre has been jailed for life after being convicted of the murder of 48-year-old Abdul Hadi Arwani.

Khalid Rashad

The two men had become involved in a power struggle over control of the centre with 63-year-old Rashad believing that Syrian-born Arwani favoured Arab Muslims over converts. Their dispute had resulted in the expulsion of Arwani from the centre but he was challenging this decision in the High Court. Before the case could be heard, Rashad recruited former soldier and fellow Jamaican Leslie Cooper to kill his rival.

Cooper lured Mr Arwani to the scene of the murder by posing as a man called "John" who was interested in employing him for building services. They arranged to meet in Havenwood, Wembley at approximately 10am on 7 April 2015. Mr Arwani picked Cooper up in his car and drove on to Greenhill, Wembley, where he parked up before Cooper opened fire on the father-of-six shooting him repeatedly in the car. Soon after, Cooper's girlfriend picked him up near to the scene of the crime.

Mr Arwani's body was found by a member of public around an hour later sitting in his dark coloured Volkswagen Passat.

It was originally thought possible that the Shepherd's Bush based cleric had been assassinated by agents of the Syrian government of whom he had been a vocal critic. Detectives launched an investigation and arrested Cooper on 12 April 2015. They searched his home, finding a MAC-10 sub-machine gun, live ammunition and a silencer covered with foam, hidden in a wicker picnic basket. Forensic analysis of these items revealed Cooper's fingerprints and DNA on them.
A digital forensic analysis of Cooper's Blackberry found that Cooper had sent a picture of the items to a second girlfriend in Jamaica a month earlier. Experts also carried out a forensic analysis of his girlfriend's car, detecting traces of gunshot residue on the front passenger seat.

It was established that Cooper had been in contact with Rashad in the lead up to Mr Arwani's murder and subsequently arrested the latter at his home on 14 April 2015. When detectives seized Rashad's phone, they retrieved deleted Whatsapp messages in which he instructed Cooper how to find details of Mr Arwani online.

In others, he told Cooper "mi want that ting deil with", to which Cooper replied "Yeah mon, mi a go mek it happen." Two months later, Cooper killed Mr Arwani.

Both Rashad and Cooper were jailed for life with a minimum term to serve of 32 years after being convicted by a jury at Kingston Crown Court. Rashad had also been convicted of possession of explosives and two counts of possession of ammunition for which he was sentenced to ten years in jail to run concurrently with the murder sentence. The pair were convicted back in February but reporting restrictions were applied until the completion of the case relating to the possession of guns and explosives.

Detectives investigating Mr Arwani's murder recovered the quantity of plastic explosives, detonation cord and bullets in Rashad's shed when executing a search warrant the day after his arrest.

Rashad, is a former builder who was born Burnell 'Bernie' Mitchell. He is the brother of Liz Mitchell, who was a member of Boney M who had a string of hits in the seventies. He changed his name when he converted to Islam. He claimed during the trial that MI5 had attempted to recruit him due to his prominent position at the centre on Church Road.

Mr Arwani's family released a statement saying , "Abdul Hadi Arwani was a loving husband, father and friend to the community. He was motivated by the desire to help others, no matter their race, religion or status. He was an inspiration to all and without a doubt one of the kindest people you could ever hope to know.

"When we were told of Abdul's death last year, we were absolutely devastated and time has done nothing to reduce the sheer pain of losing him in such a brutal and calculated way.

"To this day, we cannot comprehend why anyone would wish harm to such a peaceful, well-loved person.

"While Abdul is no longer with us, we will never forget his smile, his positive outlook or the fantastic things that he did for us and the community. He will remain in our hearts, inspiring us to embrace others in the way that he did so wonderfully."

Abdul Hadi Arwani

Commander Mak Chishty, Head of Engagement for the Met, said: "I thank the community for working with us, showing patience and supporting the investigation throughout, leading to the successful conviction we have seen at court."

Ealing Borough commander, Chief Superintendent Paul Martin, said, "Mr Arwani was a respected man in the local community. The impact of his death and the resulting investigation had the full support of the local community and we are grateful for their help throughout this investigation."

October 19, 2016