LONDON—A man who helped dispose of the body of a drug dealer who had been abducted and strangled after a dispute over a kilo of cannabis has been given a suspended prison sentence in a highly unusual case.
The man—who cannot be identified for legal reasons and is being referred to as X—pleaded guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice and on Friday was given a 16 month jail sentence, suspended for two years.
Sentencing him at the Old Bailey in London, Judge Mark Dennis said, “Had it not been for the revelations made by the defendant in October 2019 it’s highly unlikely that the remains of the victim would have been found or the killer brought to justice.”
The judge ordered the public gallery to be closed and ordered journalists in court not to reveal any information that might identify X.
Earlier this month Amraj Poonia, a drug dealer known as “Bigs,” was jailed for life for the murder of a former friend, Mohammed Shah Subhani, 27, on May 7, 2019.
‘Cowardly Animal’
Poonia—who was jailed for a minimum of 25 years—was described by the victim’s sister, Iqra, as a “cowardly animal.”
After killing the victim, Poonia “unashamedly” visited the Subhani family home in Hounslow and acted as if he was oblivious to the crime.
Mr. Subhani’s disappearance was initially treated as a missing persons inquiry but his family were convinced there was foul play.
Six days after he disappeared his brothers confronted Poonia and during a fight he told them, “I will kill you like I killed your brother.”
Poonia was arrested for affray and, as he was being put into a police van, he was recorded on an officer’s body-worn camera threatening Mr. Subhani’s brother and telling him: “I’m telling you this on live camera. You pig rat, snitch, gangster wannabe, you’re dead, yeah.”
Detectives got a breakthrough six months later when X walked into Stoke Newington police station, identified Poonia as the killer, and led the police to woodland near Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, where the skeletal remains had been scattered across a wide area by wild animals.
X gave the police a full statement and gave evidence at the trial, during which he said Poonia had bragged about strangling Mr. Subhani at the plumbers’ merchants.
The trial heard Poonia and Mr. Subhani fell out over a kilo of cannabis which had gone missing after Poonia was given it for safekeeping.
A friend, Mohanad Riad, recruited two local drug dealers to help stage a fake theft but it failed to stem Mr. Subhani’s suspicions and violence broke out a few weeks before the murder.
Raneel Poonia, 26, was acquitted of murder but was jailed for seven years for perverting the course of justice.
Riad, 23, and Mahamud Ismail, 27, were also found guilty of perverting the course of justice and were jailed for 38 months and five-and-a-half years, respectively.
Giving a victim impact statement in court earlier this month, Iqra Subhani said her brother had been killed “in the most cowardly and heinous way by his so-called friends.”
Her voice breaking with emotion, she addressed the defendants in the dock directly and said, “Even after you brutally killed him, you did not spare him, you continued to torment him after he was dead.”
“My brother had the spirit of a lion. But a lion can only do so much when he is ambushed by hyenas and that is what you cowardly animals did,” she added.
‘Where Is My Daddy?’
Ms. Lopez said the child frequently asked her, “Where is my daddy?” and she replied that he was up in the sky and would always be looking down upon the child.The victim’s father Gul Subhani said his murder was “pure evil” and added: “They disregarded his body like a piece of rubbish. He did not go there to fight. He was a lover not a fighter.”
He said the thought of his son’s body being set on fire, “makes our skin crawl.”
X, who has been warned he may have to stay away from his family and his child for years because of the risk he faces, is not believed to be a registered police informant.
But they refused to provide details about whether any registered informants had been convicted of crimes.
