Hartlepool shotgun murder - Iranian man denies being part of plot with Albanians to kill drug dealer

Noza Saffari, 39, who is of Kurdish origin, is on trial at Teesside Crown Court with three others who all stand accused of the murder of Hamawand Ali Hussain.

Mr Hussain, 30, said to have been involved in cannabis farms, was killed after being shot with a shotgun inside a property in Charterhouse Street, off Oxford Road, on Saturday, September 14, in 2019.

Saffari, of Park Lane, Middlesbrough, was quizzed by prosecutor Francis FitzGibbon QC about his links with other men connected to the case.

Two days before the murder, Saffari accepted being in a Fiat 500 car in the area near Charterhouse Street, around the same time as a black Hyundai vehicle alleged to be linked to Albanians in the case.

Saffari, who says he is a handyman and was friends with Mr Hussain, said there was ‘no connection’ between the two vehicles being in the area.

Mr FitzGbbon asked him: “What were you doing in the area of Charterhouse Street where your friend was murdered?”

Saffari said he had been to look at a possible job to a house in a village on the outskirts of Hartlepool.

He was also questioned about a number of phone calls and text messages Saffari made to people alleged to be involved in the murder.

Saffari, who denies murder, said they were all work related in connection with his job as a handyman.

The trial continues.

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