Two sisters who smuggled their fugitive brother out of Britain by driving him 550 miles across Europe while he was wanted for murder have been jailed.
Aspiring lawyers Husna, 29, and Farah Khan, 28, took fugitive sibling Khayam Khurshid on a six-day road trip across Europe in a bid to help him flee to their native Pakistan.
Khurshid was wanted by UK police after he was involved in the mistaken killing of 18-year-old boxer Cole Kershaw following an underworld feud over a girl.
The two women, from Winsford, Cheshire, spent £2,800 buying a burner phone, hiring a car, booking hotel rooms plus last minute travel along the Eurotunnel and one-way flights to Islamabad.
Lawyers for the pair suggested ‘cultural’ as well as ‘familial’ reasons were behind the escape plot.
They tried to put Khurshid on a flight at Brussels Airport in Belgium and then at Schiphol in Amsterdam but were thwarted because he had no valid Covid certificate.
Paralegal Farah Khan (pictured), 28, helped smuggled her fugitive brother out of Britain by driving him 550 miles across Europe while he was wanted for murder
Law student Husna Khan, 29, (pictured) from Winsford, Cheshire, spent £2,800 along with her sister buying a burner phone, hiring a car, booking hotel rooms plus last minute travel along the Eurotunnel and one-way flights to Islamabad
The sisters fugitive sibling Khayam Khurshid (pictured) wanted by UK police after he was wanted for murder
Cole Kershaw, 18, was shot in the chest and killed in a pursuit between two vehicles in Bury, Greater Manchester, on August 12
The siblings even considered driving him the 4,700 miles to Pakistan but police tracked them from Amsterdam and Khurshid was arrested.
The gangster was later extradited back to the UK where he was locked up for life for murder and having a firearm with intent to endanger life.
At Manchester Crown Court law student Husna and paralegal Farah both denied wrongdoing but were convicted of assisting an offender following a trial. They were each jailed for two and a half years today.
Khurshid, now 32, is currently serving a minimum of 27 years in jail after an appeal against his conviction was overturned. Two other men are also serving life for murder.
The escape plot began after Khurshid was among a gang of men who were involved in the bungled fatal shooting of 18-year old Cole Kershaw at 9.30pm on August 12 2020 during a feud between two other men over a woman.
On the night of the killing in Bury, Khurshid, from Radcliffe, and two friends had been in a BMW 5 series and armed with a gun and baseball bats when one of them shot at a vehicle in which Cole was travelling with the intended target.
Pictured is Khayam Khurshid being arrested in Amsterdam
They tried to put Khurshid on a flight at Brussels Airport in Belgium and then at Schiphol in Amsterdam but were thwarted because he had no valid Covid certificate. Police then tracked them from Amsterdam and Khurshid was arrested
Khayam Khurshid (pictured), now 32, is currently serving a minimum of 27 years in jail after an appeal against his conviction was overturned
Cole Kershaw was shot dead by mistake after he was caught up in a ‘macho man’ love triangle feud
The two cars crashed following a dramatic chase and Cole who was said to have been in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ tried to flee on foot but was caught in a final hail of bullets and was hit in the side of the chest, damaging the main artery to his heart.
He was taken to Royal Oldham Hospital, but later died from his injuries. The intended target of the killing escaped unharmed.
The court heard in the hours after the murder at 11.22pm Khurshid contacted his sisters and arrangements were made to move a different BMW owned by Farah which her brother had previously used.
Husna searched on Twitter for phrases like ‘Cole Kershaw’ and ‘Bury GMP ‘ – a reference to Greater Manchester Police – before the pair booked a room for two nights at the Ibis hotel in Salford at 4am to shield Khurshid from public view.
The court heard Farah also made a 450mile round trip to Southampton for mystery reasons before texting and Facetiming Khurshid saying: ‘Inshalla (if God’s willing) everything will be good.’
The siblings eventually set off to Kent using a hire car on August 16 and travelled through the Euro tunnel using last minutes tickets purchased in Dover before driving through the night across mainland Europe.
The siblings were trying to spirit their brother Khurshid away to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad
An aerial shot taken in 2005 shows part of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad
Initially they tried to book a last minute flight to Islamabad at Brussels but Khurshid was turned away due to his Covid status and instead they drove on to the Netherlands where a further failed attempt was made to get him on a flight to the Pakistani capital via Dubai.
The two sisters tried to get a Covid test for Khurshid and even considered driving him the 4,700 miles to Pakistan before he was arrested when police tracked them to Amsterdam on August 18.
The women got away but were detained as they arrived back in the UK via the Channel tunnel.
Both gave no comment interviews but later claimed they had no idea their brother had committed a murder and were simply taking him on a ‘family holiday.’
Lawyers for the pair said both had ‘mental health issues’ after growing up in care when their family was split up at an early age. They suggested ‘cultural’ as well as ‘familial’ reasons were behind the escape plot.
But Judge John Potter told them: ‘This was very serious offending. I am prepared to accept during those six days, you were acting out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to your brother.
‘But this does not diminish the seriousness of your offending, You tried to spirit away from justice someone who had committed a murder, a man whom you knew had taken part in a cold blood shooting.
The police managed to track the siblings after they failed to get on a flight at Schiphol Airport (pictured), near Amsterdam, after not having a Covid certificate during the pandemic
‘You planned your actions carefully and more than once acted quite deliberately in trying to deceive the authorities from conducting their investigation as to the whereabouts of your brother.
‘You were both willing to go to great lengths and pay a considerable amount of money to place your brother out of the reach of the authorities. Everything possible was done to spirit him away from justice.’
The judge added: ‘There may have been cultural matters at play here but no excuse arises from those matters which might have allowed you to behave in the way you did.
‘I understand you have both in effect destroyed your careers in law and it is a tragedy that two young capable women, as you are, should appear before this court facing sentence for such serious offending.
‘But you decided to act as you did – the responsibility for your offending lies with you.’
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