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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Son of Idi Amin, Faisal Wangita - A chip off ye old block. |
| 2007-08-05 |
| The son of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was one of a gang of men jailed for stabbing a teenager to death near a London underground station, a British judge revealed on Friday. Faisal Wangita (25) was one of 13 men convicted over the killing of Mahir Osman in January 2006. Osman was stabbed more than 20 times in a feud between rival gangs. Wangita was cleared of murder but was jailed for five years after being found guilty in April of violent disorder and conspiracy to wound. His lawyer revealed at an earlier hearing that his father was the former Ugandan dictator, blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of people during his rule between 1971 and 1979. But Wangita's relationship to Amin was kept from the jury at London's Old Bailey criminal court after Judge Stephen Kramer decided it would be prejudicial. It was made public only on Friday after the judge lifted a banning order on the media following the conviction of the final five members of the gang charged over the killing. The court heard Wangita was one of up to 40 African men and youths who attacked Osman (18) outside the station in Camden, north London. Closed-circuit television footage showed the mechanical engineering student being attacked with knives, bottles, hammers and scaffolding poles in front of horrified onlookers. During the assault, the gang shouted: "Stab him through the heart, stab him dead through the heart." Prosecutors said the violence was the culmination of a series of incidents between rival Somali gangs, the Centric Boys gang, of which Osman was a member, and the North London Somalis. The gang escaped on a bus but were caught after it was surrounded by police. "It was a premeditated attack using a level of violence I have rarely seen," said Detective Chief Inspector Michael Broster. London has suffered a rise in gang-related murders in recent years, often involving teenagers. "The attack was an example of gang culture that is all too prevalent on the streets of London," Kramer said. Amin had at least four wives and is believed to have had about 40 children. -- Rooters |
| Posted by:Besoeker |