31-year-old Muhammad Gohir Khan is on trial at the Kingston Crown Court in UK over accusations of plotting to kill a Pakistani activist, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, in Netherlands. Gohir was arrested last year in June and has pleaded not guilty towards the conspiracy to murder. As per reports, Gohir Khan worked at a supermarket and was heavily in debt. The prosecution has alleged that Gohir had reacted “enthusiastically” to a proposal by a man named only as “MudZ” to kill the Pakistani political activist in exchange for £100,000.
Alleged WhatsApp messages between the accused and the man code-named “Mudz” were presented in the court. The conversation used a code with references to fishing; with the target on one occasion described as “a little fish” as opposed to a “shark” and that a “little knife… hook” would suffice for the job. There was also the mention of another person in those messages, who was referred to as “Big Boss.” The accused was also sent the home address of Goraya along with photographs.
The prosecutor, Alison Morgan, alleged that the accused had travelled twice to Netherlands last year. On one occasion, when Gohir was denied entry into Netherlands by authorities at the airport on June 13 last year, he reportedly returned to the UK and took the Eurostar to Paris on June 17 and then a bus to Rotterdam. As per security footage, the accused had taken a taxi to the street where Goraya lived in Rotterdam. The accused reportedly also bought a professional Sabatier chef’s knife at a homeware shop, but unable to locate Goraya who was away, returned to UK on June 23, where he was arrested.
The Pakistan Connection
Alison Morgan has argued that Gohir Khan was hired by “others who appeared to be based in Pakistan”. Morgan has also told the court that the assassination was suspected to be orchestrated by ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency.
Ahmad Waqass Goraya, a liberal activist and blogger, had left Pakistan after he and five other bloggers were abducted and later released in Islamabad in 2017. Living under a self-imposed exile, Goraya had become a prominent critic of the Pakistani military. The blogger “made fun of the Pakistani military” and “went so far on occasions as to call Pakistan a terrorist state”. As per reports, in 2018, Goraya “received information from the FBI that he was on a kill list”, and feared a state-orchestrated attack.
The accused, Gohir Khan, has accepted sending and receiving the alleged messages and even travelling to Rotterdam, but pleads not guilty as he planned to keep the money but not carry out the murder.
