Hitman sentenced to life for plotting to kill exiled activist

LONDON: Gohir Khan, £100,000 hitman, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a judge at the Kingston Crown Court for plotting to murder activist Ahmad Waqass Goraya in the Netherlands who was told he was on a “kill list” by the FBI.

On Friday afternoon, the court declared that hitman Gohir Khan will serve at least 13 years in jail before becoming eligible for parole. He had conspired to kill Goraya with assistance from the middleman who whereabouts remain unknown at this moment and it’s believed that Scotland Yard’s counter terrorism command unit is looking for him.

Khan, 32, who appeared in court wearing glasses and dressed in a waistcoat, looked down when he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Mr Justice Hilliard told him that he was "so determined and so distorted" in his reasoning that he posed a significant risk to the public.

"I cannot say when that risk will dissipate, I hope you will work hard to address it, but there is at least a significant risk that you may resort to violence or serious harm in relation to some other set back."

"Travelling abroad to kill someone for very significant payment and intending to do just that had your victim been there, and to commit other such crimes to extinguish your debts, is such a grave matter as to justify life imprisonment."

Gohir Khan’s lawyer Counsel Tim Maloney said Khan's efforts were "truly, genuinely lacking in sophistication" and his communication with middleman were "dominated by the defendant's relentless attempts to ensure he was paid." He had booked the hotel and car in his own name and made no attempt at disguise, "ensuring that any attempts, successful or otherwise, would inevitably have led the authorities to him."

"The plot was of a serious and international nature but his part in it was not sophisticated or professional," Mr Moloney said, in mitigation. He also told the court about Khan’s previous clean non-criminal record.

Muhammad Gohir Khan, from Forest Gate, East London was hired by some people to carry out the killing of the blogger, the court heard. At the time Gohir Khan was living with his parents, wife and six children in a large Victorian house in Forest Gate, East London and took 36 hours leave from the Iceland supermarket where he worked, to travel to Rotterdam to carry out the killing. Alison Morgan QC, prosecuting, told the court that Khan had been "hired for a fee, as a hit man" to kill the intended victim, through a middleman.