A British national in his early-thirties convicted of being part of a conspiracy to kill a Netherlands-based dissident Pakistani blogger has been sentenced to life in jail by a London court. The court ordered that Mohd Gohir Khan will serve 13 years in prison before being eligible to apply for parole. In January this year, a jury was unanimous that Khan was guilty of conspiring to kill Ahmad Waqass Goraya in Rotterdam. The blogger has been in self-imposed exile since 2017. The prosecution had earlier argued that Khan was hired by persons who appeared to be based in Pakistan to carry out the “intended killing”. Khan had travelled to Rotterdam 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 weapon. He could not complete the task for which he was offered £100,000 as he was arrested on his return to the UK. The prosecution told the jury how a Pakistan-based middleman, Muzzamil, allegedly contacted Khan in 2021 with an offer to pay £80,000 for the job, while telling him about his own commission of £20,000. Goraya, a fierce critic of the Pakistani government and the military, accuses the ISI of the conspiracy to kill him.
