A TikTok star and her mum have been jailed for murder, after forcing a car off a motorway, where it hit a tree and caught fire, killing both passengers.
A UK court heard that Ansreen and Mahek Bukhari, a mother and daughter duo, recruited at least five others to partake in the “cold-blooded” murder, killing Saqib Hussain and Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21.
The fatal car chase in Leicestershire, England, came after Hussain threatened to reveal his affair with Ansreen Bukhari, 46. He also allegedly threatened to share explicit photographs of the mother online.
Mahek, 24, was jailed for life, with the judge ordering her to serve at least 31 years and eight months. Ansreen was also jailed for life, required to serve at least 26 years and nine months.
Leicester Crown Court heard that the mother and daughter “lured” Hussain to a meeting in a Tesco car park, under the impression he would be receiving £3,000 (NZD$6,339) that he claimed to spend on the mother throughout their relationship. Ijazuddin was with Hussain at the meeting.
Instead, the pair were ambushed by a masked gang - Rekan Karwan, 29, Raees Jamal, 23, Natasha Akhtar, 23, Ameer Jamal, 28, and Sanaf Gulamustafa, 23 - who was hired by the Bukhari’s, resulting in the two young men trying to escape in their car, a Skoda Fabia.
CCTV shows the men being chased down the motorway by two other cars, driven by Karwan and Jamal, before the Skoda Fabia crashed into a tree and caught fire.
Hussain was on the phone with 999 dispatchers moments before the crash, with a recording of the call being played during the trail.
He told the emergency dispatcher: "There's guys following me, they have balaclavas on… they're trying to ram me off the road."
A scream was heard on the line before the call abruptly ended.
Judge Timothy Spencer, who presided over the case, told the court: "The prosecution categorised this as a story of love, obsession and extortion and they are right.
"They were also right in categorising this case as one of cold-blooded murder."
He also said that TikTok and Instagram, where Mahek had amassed a total of 178,000 followers, was at the heart of the case.
"Your tawdry fame through your career as an influencer has made you entirely self-obsessed."
He told the influencer her “warped values” led to her having “no apparent awareness” of the impact her actions had on others.
The judge said Ansreen’s head had been turned by the “perceived glamour” of her daughters career, saying it was a world away from being a mother and a housewife.
"You are the grown-up in this group and you should have behaved as the grown-up but you allowed your understandable concern about exposure to strip you of any rational judgement," he said.
Ijazuddin's father, Sikandar Hayat, said his son had been "innocent".
He said he could not understand why no one called the emergency services after the crash.
"They left him and his friend to burn in a furnace of hell," he said.
In a statement read on their behalf, Hussain's family said his parents had been left as "two lifeless corpses", unable to eat or drink prior to their sons funeral.
Kerwan and Raess were also sentenced for murder for their role in the ambush and driving the pursuing cars. Raess was also serving a sentence for rape at the time. Akhtar, Ameer and Gulamustafa were found guilt of manslaughter and are made to serves sentences of 11 years, 14 years and 14 years, respectively.
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