Four walk free as judge halts trial for murder of brothers

Judge Christopher Moss stepped in amid allegations that key prosecution witnesses had changed their evidence.

As a result police have launched an investigation into a possible attempt to pervert the course of justice.

A bid by Crown lawyers to have the judge's decision reversed was rejected in the Court of Appeal.

Lord Justice Latham, sitting with Mr Justice Royce and Sir Peter Cresswell, backed the trial judge and ordered that not guilty verdicts be entered for the defendants.

The four had been accused of stabbing to death brothers Mohammed and Hayder Ali in an ambush in Tooting in April 2006.

They were attacked by up to 30 youths acting "like a pack of wolves" and armed with bats, screwdrivers, knives and poles.

In a seven-and-a-half-month trial last year six men were convicted of murder, but the second trial was stopped after four months.

Quadeer Khan, 23, of Wandsworth; Bilal Kayani, 20, and Shahzad Kayani, 19, both of Tooting; and Omar Butt, 32, of Fulham, had denied murder and violent disorder.

The decision will come as a blow to Sadia Ali, the widow of Mohammed Ali, who was six months pregnant with their second child when he was killed. The couple married when they were 18.

"Mohammed was so hardworking, he would do anything for me, his mother and sisters," she said.

"When he was killed I was 23 and a widow. We were so young to get married, but we were in love and he always looked after me."

The court heard that the murders were "the terrible endgame" to an ongoing feud between Muslim gangs in south-west London.

Mohammed Ali, 24, an IT sales manager of Battersea, was cut down as he tried to flee the gang.

When his brother tried to help he was stabbed four times in the back and collapseda few feet away. Hayder, 23 a recruitment consultant from Southfields, was engaged and due to marry in November last year.

Police searches recovered 39 different weapons including two knives, four bats, three screwdrivers, a hammer, knuckle dusters, metal poles, scissors, a broken bottle and even a menu board from an Indian restaurant.

But in legal submissions Kayani's counsel Jonathan Whitfield and Liam Walker argued that key witnesses had changed their evidence after being contacted during the trial.

After mobile phone records were disclosed the judge ruled that it was impossible for the defendants to receive a fair trial.

Judge Moss said: "I conclude there is an inference to be drawn that the additions and change to the evidence were occasioned by telephone traffic."

He added: "There has been contact for improper purposes between the relevant parties in this sorry tale... The probity of these proceedings had been affected in such a way it can never been cured."

Imran Ali, 20, of Mitcham; Noor Kayani, 22, from Tooting; Imran Hussain, 23, of Tooting; Aazam Butt, 20, of Fulham; and Hassan Mir, 18, and Usman Butt, 19 of no fixed address, were convicted of the murder at the earlier trial and will be sentenced later.