Mahek Bukhari was handed a life sentence for the murders of Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin
Mahek Bukhari
A killer TikTok influencer who murdered her mum’s lover and his friend in a high-speed chase is appealing her sentence.
Mahek Bukhari was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 31 years, in September 2023.
She was locked up for her involvement in the murders of Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin in February 2022.
Her mum Ansreen Bukhari was jailed for at least 26 years for her part in their murder.
Two others were also convicted of the murders, while three others were found guilty of two counts of manslaughter.
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A trial at Leicester Crown Court heard how the murders followed Ansreen’s unsuccessful attempts to break off her affair with Mr Hussain.
Mr Hussain had threatened to release sexually explicit material he had of the mum if she did not fork out the £3,000 he claimed to have spent on her during their affair.
Prosecutors claimed Mr Hussain and Mr Ijazuddin, both 21 and from Banbury, Oxfordshire, were ‘lured’ to ‘one last meeting’ with the Bukharis in a Tesco car park in Leicester, under the pretence of returning the cash.
But the Bukharis and their accomplices ambushed the pair, chasing Mr Ijazuddin’s Skoda along the A46, in Leicester, in two vehicles.
They then deliberately rammed them off the road, the trial heard.
At the Court of Appeal on Friday (October 17), barristers for Mahek – who was 24 at the time of her sentencing – said her sentence should be reduced.
They claim it does not reflect that Mr Hussain had demonstrated ‘controlling behaviour’ towards her mother in the hours before the killing.
Christopher Millington KC, for Mahek, said Mr Hussain threatened to release the sexually explicit material, which was ‘the end of a very long series of threatening messages’.
Saqib Hussain and Hashim Ijazuddin died in the collision on the A46 at Six Hills(Image: Leicestershire Police)
This had a ‘very direct evidential bearing’ on the Bukharis’ decision to travel to Leicester to meet Mr Hussain, Mr Millington said.
He said: “None of this, we submit, was reflected in the fixing of the minimum term as it should have been.”
Mr Millington said the killing was ‘heat of the moment, rather than cold-blooded murder’, as a judge previously described.
He continued: “There was a plan, but it was not a plan to kill Saqib, or anyone else.
“It plainly involved the real possibility of violence, beating up perhaps, it was never considered to be a plan to kill or cause really serious bodily injury.”
Mr Millington told the hearing in London that Mahek’s age, along with her ‘lack of maturity, should also have led to a shorter sentence.
He concluded: “One has been left with a term that is wholly disproportionate.”
After the car chase began, Mr Hussain told police in a 999 call moments before his death that his and Mr Ijazuddin’s car was being ‘rammed off the road’ by the assailants.
Analysis by forensic collision investigators indicated that one of the cars involved in the chase reached speeds of up to 100mph.
Sentencing, Judge Timothy Spencer KC said at the time that Mahek’s ‘tawdry fame’ as a social media influencer made her ‘utterly self–obsessed’ and ‘oblivious to the damage you do’.
Collingwood Thompson KC, for the Crown Prosecution Service, acknowledged that blackmail by Mr Hussain ‘undoubtedly existed’ and was ‘relevant’.
But he said the sentence should not be reduced.
He told the court: “The fact is that the appellant did contemplate with her mother going to the police, and if they had gone to the police, none of this would have happened.
“A conscious decision was made not to go to the police and deal with it in that way, and deal with it another way.”
He concluded: “This was a tough sentence, but it was not manifestly excessive.”
Lord Justice Warby, Mr Justice Lavender and Judge Sylvia De Bertodano will give their judgment in writing at a later date.
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