Man convicted of murdering Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah loses bid to have sentence cut
The man convicted of murdering Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah has lost a bid to have his sentence cut.
The man convicted of murdering Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah has lost a bid to have his sentence cut.
Tanveer Ahmed, 32, was told on Tuesday by appeal judges that the 27 year sentence imposed on him earlier this year was legally sound.
The taxi driver was given the news following a hearing at the Court of Criminal Appeal before judges Lord Carloway, Lord Malcolm and Lord Bracadale.
Ahmed's advocate Gordon Jackson QC argued that judge Lady Rae acted wrongly when she imposed the sentence.
Mr Jackson, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, said that the exact circumstances of the murder meant that his client should have received a lesser sentence.
The senior lawyer pointed to two other cases which Lady Rae presided over - the prosecutions of Alexander Pacteau, the man who killed Irish nursing student Karen Buckley and John Leathem, the shopkeeper who killed teenager Paige Doherty.
Mr Jackson argued that Ahmed waited for the police to come to arrest him by sitting at a bus stop close to the murder scene. He also said that his client admitted his guilt.
The advocate said that both Pacteau and Leathem had tried to escape detection for their crimes.
Mr Jackson compared the sentences given to the two men - Pacteau was given 23 years and Leathem was given 27 years.
He said that his client should receive a lesser sentence. However, Scotland's most senior judge Lord Carloway rejected Mr Jackson's arguments.
He ruled that the religious feeling which motivated Ahmed to kill Mr Shah meant that Lady Rae was entitled to impose the sentence.
Lord Carloway said: "The court is not satisfied that the starting point in this case was too much.
"The court is not of the opinion that the sentence imposed in this case was excessive and in way amounted to a miscarriage of justice.
"The appeal against sentence is therefore refused." Ahmed, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow in July 2016 to stabbing Mr Shah a total of 30 times outside his shop.
The court heard how the crime was "religiously motivated." Ahmed drove to Scotland from his English home because he thought Mr Shah had insulted Islam.
Ahmed was a Sunni Muslim whilst his victim was a member of the Ahmadi branch of the religion. Mr Shah's sect believes the prophet Muhammad was not the final Muslim prophet and Ahmed objected to that viewpoint.
In return for guilty pleas, Scottish judges have the discretion to reduce sentences by as much as 30 per cent.
On Tuesday, Mr Jackson told the appeal court that when compared to the Pacteau and the Leathem cases, the sentence imposed on Ahmed was excessive.
Pacteau, 22, of Glasgow, was jailed for a minimum of 23 years in September 2015 for murdering Irish nursing student Karen Buckley in April of that year.
He repeatedly battered his victim after meeting her at a nightclub in the city and plotted to dissolve her body in acid. He also concealed her body and lied to police about what happened to Karen.
Leathem, of Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, was convicted in October 2016 at the High Court in Glasgow of killing 15-year-old Paige in his deli in the town.
The shopkeeper stabbed the teenager 146 times in March 2016. He then tried to cover up his actions.
Mr Jackson said that Ahmed on the other hand waited for the police to come and arrest him.
He said that his client also admitted his guilt at the earliest opportunity.
Mr Jackson then urged the judges to reduce the sentence.
He added: "He could have left the scene. He was neither disguised and he made no attempt to leave. He waited by the bus shelter for the police to come for him." However, the appeal judges ruled that Lady Rae was right to impose the sentence.