
Man, 21, shot dead in ‘organised execution' on April Fool's Day, court told
A 21-year-old man was lured out of a house and shot dead on the doorstep in a 'planned, organised execution' on April Fool's Day, a court has heard.
Janayo Lucima suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest having been shot at close range by Mohamed Mansaray, 18, jurors were told on Monday.
Although Mansaray pulled the trigger outside the address in Barons Court, west London, the killing was orchestrated by Khuder Al Kurdi, 22, from his home nearby, it is claimed.
Eight others were allegedly with Mansaray to provide him with 'back up, support and encouragement', although two of them have since fled to Somalia and Libya to avoid prosecution, jurors heard.
Mansaray, Al Kurdi and six others are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of Mr Lucima's murder.
Outlining the case against them, prosecutor Alan Gardner KC said Mansaray had been standing outside the house waiting for Mr Lucima to come out.
Mr Gardner said: 'He was lured out of that house and into the sights of the waiting gunman by a phone call from the first defendant, Khuder Al Kurdi.
'This was a planned and organised execution arising from disputes within the drugs trade.'
CCTV footage had captured the incident shortly after 10pm on Monday April 1 2024 in Comeragh Road, a residential area in Barons Court.
Mr Gardner told jurors: 'That is, of course, unpleasant footage to watch, but it is essential that you see it in order to fully understand what happened in this case.'
The handgun used to kill Mr Lucima was disposed of and has not been recovered, the court was told.
It had allegedly come from Al Kurdi who, jurors were told, played a 'central role' in organising the shooting.
Al Kurdi, of Barons Court, and Mansaray, of Neasden, north-west London, have denied murder, along with co-defendants Muktar Said, 23, of Hammersmith; Issa Siteri, 19, of Kensington; Yusuf Abdi, 19, of Westminster; Pharrell Cowans, 18, of Harrow, north-west London, and two 17-year-old boys, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
The Old Bailey trial continues.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Telegraph
02-04-2025
- Telegraph
We are sleepwalking into security disaster after security disaster
You can see it now. The head of MI5 is having his weekly meeting with the security minister. They are casually lamenting Donald Trump's worrying closeness to Vladimir Putin and the threat that this poses to Britain. Suddenly, Sir Ken McCallum gets to his feet so sharply that his tea sloshes onto the table. 'Good Lord, minister,' he exclaims, palming his forehead. 'I think we've forgotten to proscribe Russia.' Did it really happen like that? We will never know. But it was only yesterday that Putin's gangster nation – which not only invaded Ukraine, but has also been responsible for the Salisbury nerve agent poisonings and widespread espionage and cyber attacks on these shores – was for the first time declared a danger to our national security. I know. Quite the oversight. While the rest of us marked April Fool's Day, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, made a statement to the Commons announcing that Russia presented an 'acute threat' and would join Iran on the highest 'enhanced tier' of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs). This is a new system intended to guard British interests against covert foreign influence that will come into force on July 1. The scheme features two categories. According to the Government website, the lower of these, reserved for those countries bent only on 'political influence', requires spies to 'register with the scheme if you are instructed by a foreign power to carry out' such operations. Presumably, this would include wizard wheezes like when the Chinese persuaded parliamentary researchers to pass them sensitive information, or when they apparently inveigled an agent into the close circle of Prince Andrew (though what good that did them is anybody's guess). As soon as July comes about, our friends from Beijing will be required to fill out an online form first. The 'enhanced' tier, meanwhile, asks spooks to 'register with the scheme if you are instructed by a specified foreign power' to carry out 'relevant activities'. The coy euphemism of 'relevant activities' probably implies things like, I don't know, poisoning British citizens by smearing Novichok on their door handles or putting polonium in their tea. Such is the genius of the British state that our most innovative counter-espionage idea is to demand that foreign spies – whose literal jobs are to break the law of the land in this country – visit the Government website and register their covert operations before they put them into action. Will they put on a false nose and moustache to avoid the gaze of the webcam? Will there be a dropdown menu for types of poison? Will there be a tickbox asking 'does your operation involve discrimination based on characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010' and a request for spies to fill in their gender identities (male, female, nonbinary, prefer not to say, other) at the end? Such an idea could only be born of civil servants so thoroughly institutionalised by bureaucracy that they cannot conceive of anybody, even a foreign assassin, failing to comply with the petty strictures of officialdom. Failing to register will be a criminal offence, but these people are committing crimes anyway. Could you imagine any other country in the world seeing a Bike2Work-style registration scheme as a viable counter-espionage measure? The Americans? The Israelis? The Canadians? (OK, maybe the Canadians.) I jest. A little bit. But things have come to a pretty pass when we discover a vulnerability only after years of espionage against us – much of which has not been reported – and land on this as a solution. It's not just Russia. Tehran has so infiltrated our country that earlier this year a pressure group called United Against a Nuclear Iran launched a campaign calling on the Government to make Britain a 'Khamenei free zone'. In the launch video, the group's head of research, Kasra Aarabi, said: 'I'm outside the office of Ayatollah Khamenei. but I'm not in Tehran. I'm in London, in the heart of Europe.' Hiva Wallace, a senior advisor, added: 'Khamenei has built a network of infiltration centres across Europe…some of [the] most violent and extreme commanders were hosted by Khamenei's London-based Islamic Students Association.' The clue is in the 'London-based'. I know what my friends in the Foreign Office will say. For years, many sensible voices, like former security minister Tom Tugendhat, have been calling for Iran's sinister Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to be blacklisted in Britain. But the sages of King Charles Street have blocked the move, worried that this may harm their diplomacy. Similarly, they are treading carefully with Russia. Make no mistake: the introduction of Firs is intended to satisfy political and diplomatic concerns. It is not a robust security doctrine. The fact that the Government is making such lame moves when our country is already infested with spies is simply another indication of our national somnambulance.


Telegraph
01-04-2025
- Telegraph
Police must tell suspects that arrest is not an April Fool's joke
Police officers have been told they must make clear to suspects that they are not playing an April Fool's Day joke on them if they make arrests for certain crimes on Tuesday. Policing bodies are concerned suspects will assume they are being pranked if they are questioned for offences such as upsetting people on Twitter. As well as producing their warrant cards when making arrests on Tuesday, officers are being warned they may need to carry extra documentation to prove they are not wearing fancy dress. The advice applies in particular to officers on early shifts as April Fool's Day jokes are by tradition carried out before midday. Police are already facing criticism for arresting people over comments they have made online rather than spending their shifts investigating thefts and burglaries. 'Do I look like I'm joking?' Lirpa Loof, of the pressure group Justice for Online Keyboard Enthusiasts (Joke) said: 'It's just as well police officers are being warned that people might not take them seriously if they turn up at their front door today of all days. 'Lots of people who have been arrested for making posts on social media in the past will have needed to check the date to make sure they weren't being taken for fools.' The guidance to police forces was issued by Al Pofilor, of the Policing Regulations (Absolute Nonsense) Committee (Pranc) who said: 'We anticipate that officers who have to speak to people on April 1 who are suspected of things like non-crime hate incidents might struggle to be taken seriously. 'So we have issued guidance on what they might say to pre-empt such concerns, such as telling suspects, 'I am not a stripper hired by your mates' or 'do I look like I'm joking?'. 'Now I come to think of it, this might be something we need to tell officers to do every day, given the way things are going.'


The Independent
24-02-2025
- The Independent
Man, 21, shot dead in ‘organised execution' on April Fool's Day, court told
A 21-year-old man was lured out of a house and shot dead on the doorstep in a 'planned, organised execution' on April Fool's Day, a court has heard. Janayo Lucima suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest having been shot at close range by Mohamed Mansaray, 18, jurors were told on Monday. Although Mansaray pulled the trigger outside the address in Barons Court, west London, the killing was orchestrated by Khuder Al Kurdi, 22, from his home nearby, it is claimed. Eight others were allegedly with Mansaray to provide him with 'back up, support and encouragement', although two of them have since fled to Somalia and Libya to avoid prosecution, jurors heard. Mansaray, Al Kurdi and six others are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of Mr Lucima's murder. Outlining the case against them, prosecutor Alan Gardner KC said Mansaray had been standing outside the house waiting for Mr Lucima to come out. Mr Gardner said: 'He was lured out of that house and into the sights of the waiting gunman by a phone call from the first defendant, Khuder Al Kurdi. 'This was a planned and organised execution arising from disputes within the drugs trade.' CCTV footage had captured the incident shortly after 10pm on Monday April 1 2024 in Comeragh Road, a residential area in Barons Court. Mr Gardner told jurors: 'That is, of course, unpleasant footage to watch, but it is essential that you see it in order to fully understand what happened in this case.' The handgun used to kill Mr Lucima was disposed of and has not been recovered, the court was told. It had allegedly come from Al Kurdi who, jurors were told, played a 'central role' in organising the shooting. Al Kurdi, of Barons Court, and Mansaray, of Neasden, north-west London, have denied murder, along with co-defendants Muktar Said, 23, of Hammersmith; Issa Siteri, 19, of Kensington; Yusuf Abdi, 19, of Westminster; Pharrell Cowans, 18, of Harrow, north-west London, and two 17-year-old boys, who cannot be identified for legal reasons. The Old Bailey trial continues.