Iceland delivery driver earning £11 an hour turned hitman and plotted to kill blogger

dailystar.co.uk:

Iceland delivery driver became an unlikely assassin and plotted to murder a blogger for £100,000.Muhammad Gohir Khan, 31, planned the murder of blogger Ahmad Waqas Goraya, who was told by the FBI he was on a "kill list" after he criticised the government of Pakistan.Khan was hired by unknown people in Pakistan to kill Goraya while he was in the Netherlands in June last year.Khan, who was working as a supermarket delivery driver, travelled to Rotterdam and purchased a 19-inch knife only to find that his intended victim was not at home.When he returned to London via the Eurostar Khan was held under anti-terrorism laws.

Mr Goraya, who lives with his wife and two children, was abducted and tortured by Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency on his return to the country in 2017 after his secret blog was discovered, Kingston Crown Court heard.He was told he was on a “kill list” by the FBI in December 2018 and believes he and his family received threats “led and orchestrated” by the ISI after he was publicly accused of insulting God and the Prophet.Prosecutors said Khan, who earned £11 an hour as a driver, was “enthusiastic” about carrying out the killing – and further attacks – to earn money as he was heavily in debt, owing creditors more than £200,000.Khan, who lived with his parents, wife and six children in Forest Gate, east London, claimed he had no intention of murdering Mr Goraya but played along to “extract money”.But on Friday, he was found guilty of conspiracy to murder between February and June last year following a trial.Mr Justice Hilliard adjourned sentencing to March 11.