A United Kingdom jury returned on Friday its verdict in the trial involving 31-year-old British-Pakistani Gohir Khan, declaring him guilty of conspiring to kill self-exiled blogger Ahmad Waqass Goraya in the Netherlands.
The jury returned the verdict two days after the trial came to a close at the Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court after both sides concluded arguments.
Khan, following his conviction, is expected to be sentenced in the second week of March in a criminal court. Khan, born on Feb 16, 1990, was charged in June last year with one count of conspiracy to murder Goraya.
Goraya is an activist and blogger who left Pakistan after he and five other bloggers were abducted and later released in Islamabad in 2017. During the trial, the prosecution maintained that Khan was hired by persons who appeared to be based in Pakistan to carry out the “intended killing” of Goraya.
The prosecution said that Khan had travelled to Rotterdam, Netherlands last year as part of a conspiracy to murder Goraya, and that he had undertaken a reconnaissance mission outside his home and even bought a tool with the aim to succeed in his mission.
The financial rewards for his actions were believed to be significant, with a payment of £100,000 on offer. At the time, the prosecution said, the defendant was in significant debt, with no clear means of paying his creditors.
