Aya Hachem murderer who played 'key role' in botched assassination makes bid for freedom
03.03.2024 - 15:49
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
When Louis Junior Otway was led from the dock, convicted of killing innocent law student Aya Hachem, he shouted just two words.
"I'm innocent!"
It is a declaration he is willing to stand by and next week will be put to the test. Otway, 42, was found unanimously guilty of the murder of 19-year-old Aya and the attempted murder of car wash owner Pascha Khan in a botched assassination in May 2020, LancsLive reports.
He insisted he was not guilty but Otway 'told lies from the start' throughout his trial, a judge said. After he was convicted and sentenced to life in jail, police said he played a 'key role' in organising the plot that led to Aya's death.
But now, the jailed killer, of Clitheroe Road, Manchester, has launched an appeal against his conviction which will be heard in the Court of Appeal on March 8, 2024.
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Aya, a promising University of Salford student, was caught in the crossfire of a feud between rival tyre firms on Sunday May 17, 2020. When hostility flared up between RI Tyres and Quick Shine car wash, Otway was called in to help settle a score. Feroz Suleman, who ran RI Tyres, called upon Otway to help orchestrate the shooting of Pashah Khan, who ran Quick Shine next door.
However the plot went wrong and Aya was wrongfully shot. The student was an innocent bystander, who was walking to a nearby shop to buy food to break the Ramadan fast with her family.
Otway is currently serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 32 years but it took two trials to put the gangland enforcer behind bars.
In December 2022, his first trial dramatically collapsed, moments after the jury retired to consider its verdict. At