The victim thought he was going to die as he compared parts of the attack to the infamous murder of George Floyd
Mohammed Roshan Arif and his father Mohammed Karim
A man was viciously attacked in his home by his own relatives amid a ‘bitter family war over property and money’.
Mohammed Karim, 51, burst into his brother-in-law’s home in Small Heath like a ‘raging bull’ and began kicking and punching him, a jury was told.
His son Mohammed Roshan Arif, 22, joined the attack, placed his uncle in a chokehold and strangled him.
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The victim, who asked not to be named, recalled saying ‘mom I’m dead’ to his frail and elderly mother who witnessed the incident from the sofa.
He also compared part of the attack to the death of George Floyd, who was murdered in Minneapolis in the US by a police officer kneeling on his neck while arresting him in May 2020.
Following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court Karim and Arif, both of Lyndon Road, Solihull, were both found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Arif was also convicted of strangulation.
The victim’s sister Sourton Nessa, 49, and her elder son Mohammed Rashid, 27, were also present but were cleared of the offence of assault they faced.
Mohammed Roshan Arif, Sourton Nessa, Mohammed Rashid, and Mohammed Karim
The attack happened at the victim’s home in Small Heath where he lived with, and cared for, his elderly mother.
He told the trial there had been an agreement in place with his sister, Mrs Nessa, that her children were not to stay at the address due to an ‘ongoing family dispute to do with property and money’.
But upon returning home on August 25, 2023 following a trip to Dubai, he discovered a few hundred dollars missing from beneath his pillow and that his nephew Arif had stayed over.
He later texted his sister’s husband Karim, who turned up at the address within 30 minutes. The victim said his brother-in-law ‘erupted’ saying ‘you are calling my son a thief’.
He described being grabbed by the neck as Karim ‘charged like a raging bull’ and forced him into the living room.
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He said: “He managed to get me on the floor, punching me in the face. He just violently came at me and was punching and kicking me.
“He grabbed me by the neck and punched me on my face and head, downwards towards my chest and belly.
“He had somehow managed to throw me on to the floor. He started kicking me while I was on the floor. To my face, into my belly, my lower half.
“I just curled up into a little ball. I was shouting and screaming. At the same time I was worried for my mom’s safety.
“My immediate thoughts were ‘he’s going to go for my mom next and attack my mom’.”
The victim told the court he managed to force Karim towards the front door before Karim’s wife Mrs Nessa and their two sons, Mr Rashid and Arif, arrived.
He said he was taken back into the living room and restrained on the floor, on his front, leaving him feeling ‘paralysed’.
He continued: “Then I see an arm go around me. Arif managed to get me in a headlock and chokehold. He started tilting my head backwards.”
The victim recalled seeing a knee by the side of his head and then feeling breathless. He added: “It was like the incident that happened to George Floyd.
“That’s what it felt like I was going through.”
As the attack continued the victim remembered looking up at his mother and saying: “Mom, I’m dead, mom I’m dying, I’m dying’.
He said: “I thought that was the end of me. I thought I was dead.”
The victim told the court he believed he lost consciousness for several minutes before waking up in a pool of his own blood.
He said his home was deliberately damaged during the incident before armed police officers arrived.
Mohammed Karim with police at the scene
External CCTV captured the goings-on outside the home, while the victim had made an audio recording of events inside.
The accused family did not dispute they were present.
Mrs Nessa was alleged to have landed her own blows, encouraged the attack on her brother as well as shouted at her mother ‘your son’s going to die, bring the coffin’.
But she denied being involved and insisted she acted as ‘peacekeeper’. The jury found her not guilty of assault.
The victim had also accused Rashid of making an ‘incision’ to his chest with a knife. Rashid denied the allegation and denied he had a knife. He was also found not guilty of assault.
He said he broke up the altercation between his father Karim and his uncle, the victim. Karim claimed he acted in self-defence and that his brother-in-law had been the aggressor.
Arif also denied assaulting and strangling his uncle, claiming he acted as ‘peacekeeper’.
But the latter two defendants, father and son, were convicted. Sentencing was adjourned for Karim and Arif until April 24.
