Orkney Assassin Michael Ross' lawyer hopes Prime Video documentary will lead to 'new evidence'

Daily Record

2 days ago

The Orkney Assassin: Murder In The Isles has been released on Prime Video to mark the anniversary of Shamsuddin Mahmood's death in a Kirkwall restaurant in 1994.
Michael Ross' lawyer is optimistic that the new documentary on Prime Video will unearth fresh evidence.
Three decades have gone by since the murder of 26-year-old Shamsuddin Mahmood, who lost his life while working at the Mumtaz Restaurant in Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands.
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He was tragically killed by a masked assailant who brazenly entered the eatery and made a swift departure following the fatal shooting, leaving witnesses in disbelief.
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Ross, who faced police scrutiny at age 15, managed to dodge arrest for 14 years until his conviction as an ex-Army sniper in 2008.
Prime Video has rolled out a special documentary that includes insights from journalists, past detectives, the family of Ross, and those present at the scene.
Ross's lawyer elaborated on the compelling motivations behind their participation in the Prime Video project.
"The basis for us taking part in this was one, to ensure it was a balanced documentary," he said.
"I appreciate at the end of the day that Michael is a convicted killer and of course, this is not a case of no documentary would be doing its job if it simply presented all one side unless you could provide completely overwhelming evidence, as has happened in the past. This is not one of those cases.
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"But we were very much of the view that the passage of time either means that there's somebody on the island that knows more than they said at the time.
"There are people who were scared at the time, the passage of time might have taken that away or people who have a guilty conscience that they didn't come forward.
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"And one hopes that those people would at this stage. That would strike as new evidence, that would be people who didn't come forward, to explain what happened, who saw what happened, who knew what happened, who knew exactly who it was that pulled the trigger."
In the time since his conviction, Ross has consistently maintained his innocence regarding the murder of Mahmood when he was just 15 years old.
"You still have someone who claims he is innocent, who has never given up that he is innocent, who is still fighting to prove his innocence," he said.
"He could have made his life a lot easier by saying 'I did it.' A lot more chance of parole then, a lot more chance of getting out earlier."