A man was found guilty of murdering a Tameside teenager whose body was found in a car outside the M62.
A jury sentenced 29-year-old Gol Zazai for killing 19-year-old Najeebullah Nekzad, whose body was killed on December 31, 2019.
Leeds Crown Court jurors heard a member of the public spotted the car three days prior to the grim discovery and notified West Yorkshire Police.
Mr Nekzad’s older brother, Nasrullah, was questioned by police as a possible suspect but fled to his native Afghanistan, where he is staying, Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald told the jury.
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Nasrullah’s brother-in-law, Zazai, was also questioned and charged with murder almost two years later, Yorkshire Live reports.
The car was registered at a takeaway called Chick Corner on Old Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, where the brothers worked.
The court heard that three ligatures were found on Mr. Nekzad’s neck.
Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald said there were “signs of persistent pressure on the neck from a ligature”.
He told the jury, “Najeebullah Nekzad was generally strangled.”
Najeebullah Nekzad
(Image: West Yorkshire Police)
Mr MacDonald said a ligature that matched the dimensions of the markings on Mr Nekzad’s neck was found 106 meters away in a parking lot in the bog.
He said: “It is the case of the prosecution that two men killed Najeebullah Nekzad. The first was his older brother and the second of this defendant was Gol Zazai.
“There’s only one man in the dock. Because Nasrullah Nekzad, the brother of the deceased, left Great Britain at an earlier stage of the investigation and after being questioned and returned to his home country Afghanistan.
“Prosecutors say these two men were involved in this crime together and it doesn’t matter that one of the men is not here to be tried.
“Why do prosecutors say Gol Zazai is guilty of this murder crime?
“Because he and the brother of the deceased were with Najeebullah in the period up to the death of Najeebullah Nekzad and they were the last people to see him alive, and in the case of Gol Zazai, they told lies about when he had last seen him .
The scene after the discovery of Mr. Nekzad’s body
(Image: ExaminerLive)
“These lies, say the prosecutor, have no use except to cover up his involvement in the death of Najeebullah Nekzad.”
Zazai was interviewed by police on September 13, 2019 and denied being involved in Mr. Nekzad’s death. He told the detectives that the last time he saw him was during prayer in the mosque on August 23rd.
He said Najeebullah was upset about a death in the family and he left and “didn’t want to go back.”
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The jury heard that three of the Nekzad brothers, including Nasrullah and Najeebullah, had worked at Chick Corner on August 27 and until the wee hours of August 28.
Two cars, the Punto and a Chevrolet Spark, driven by Zazai, were seen in the New Hey Road area between 6:26 am and 7:17 am on August 28th. It was dumped around 10 am.
The court heard that Najeebullah’s body was partially covered by a black top that contained Mr. Zazai’s DNA.
Zazai of Albemarle Terrace, Ashton-under-Lyne, is sentenced on March 8th.
