Quality | 2010.01.24
Man jailed for attacking burglars freed
Munir Hussain\'s 30-month sentence for assaulting intruder who held family at knife-point is replaced with suspended sentence
A millionaire businessman jailed for attacking an intruder who kidnapped his family and held them at knife-point was freed by the court of appeal today.
Munir Hussain left the prison in Oxfordshire just after 4pm. A short time later he arrived at his father Zamin Ali\'s house just a few doors away from his own home. "First of all, thank you all the media for supporting us while we\'ve been away," he said.
"That support has been very comforting." Asking for privacy, he added: "I\'m very happy, but obviously my brother is still there." Hussain\'s brother, Qadeer Hussain, added: "He is going to spend some time with his father because they have got a lot to talk about.
"Most of the family seem to have gathered here. We are just going to spend time with each other and have a meal. His wife Shaheen is a lot more comfortable now."
Hussain, 53, had discovered three masked men in his house when he returned with his family from prayers at their local mosque. The burglars forced them into the house, tied them up and threatened to kill them before Hussain managed to escape and alert his brother, Tokeer Hussain.
The pair returned to the house in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and chased and caught one of the gang, Walid Salem, a criminal with more than 50 previous convictions. The court heard Salem was then subjected to a "dreadful, violent attack" during which he was hit so hard with a cricket bat that it broke into three pieces, leaving him with brain damage.
Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, and two other judges, said the case was one of "true exceptionality" and overturned Hussain\'s 30-month jail sentence, replacing it with 12 months\' imprisonment suspended for two years, with a supervision requirement for two years. Tokeer, 35, had his 39-month jail term reduced to two years.
Hussain\'s son Awais, 23, who had been tied up and threatened by the gang during the attack in September 2008, welcomed the verdict but said his family had been "deeply traumatised" by the ordeal.
"It was a terrifying experience and it is hard really to get over what happened – none of my family will get over it. It is difficult to describe the impact it has had on us to people who have not been through it … They said they were going to kill us. As far as we knew they were going to kill us immediately. We relive what happened to us every day."
Judge said the "call for mercy" during the appeal hearing had been intense and said the court had concluded that it "must be answered".
"We have come to the conclusion that we have ample justification for ordering that it [Hussain\'s sentence] should be suspended."
He said Hussain had been "desperate" with worry about his family when they were faced with armed, masked burglars, fearing that his wife and daughter would be raped and they would all be killed.
"The plain, simple reality is that Munir Hussain was acting under the continuing influence of extreme provocation," said Judge. "Involvement in this serious violence can only be understood as a response to the dreadful and terrifying ordeal and the emotional anguish which he had undergone."
The court heard the brothers were peaceful family men at the heart of the local community and said Hussain had acted "totally out of character, in hot blood … and without detached reasoning".
"It is rare to see men of the quality of the two appellants in court for offences of serious violence," he said.
The court heard that, shortly before sentencing, Hussain received a letter from the police indicating that he and his family might still be at risk.
"Unsurprisingly, Munir Hussain is troubled about the short- and long-term safety of his family. He is still enduring the baleful consequences of the events of that night and they will be with him for some time yet. He was indeed the victim of a very serious offence."
However, the court heard that the case "had nothing to do with the right of the householder to defend themselves or their families or their homes".
"The burglary was over and the burglars had gone, no one was in any further danger from them," said Judge.
"This is not, and should not be seen as, a case about the level of violence which a householder may lawfully and justifiably use on a burglar.
"It is also clear that the violence to which Salem was subjected was not designed to ensure that he was detained and somehow kept pending the arrival of the police to be handed to them. So far as both these appellants was concerned the purpose of their violence was revenge – to teach at least one of the burglars a lesson … such violence is not lawful and no one at the trial suggested that it was."
Judge said a sentence of two years was in itself "merciful", but added there was "ample justification" for ordering that it be suspended.
Reducing Tokeer\'s sentence, but not suspending it, he said: "He himself was not the victim of any crime. He will not have to live with the consequences of the crime."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/20[...]court-frees-man-burglar-attack
