The killers of the Syrian Imam Abdul Hadi Arwani, 48, from Acton, were jailed for life with minimum terms of 32 years yesterday at the Old Bailey Criminal Court. Imam Abdul Hadi Arwani was found dead in his car in Wembley, London after he was shot in April 2015.

Scotland Yard investigations found that Khalid Rashad, a Jamaican citizen who is a convert to Islam, hired a man to kill Imam Abdul Hadi because of a long-running dispute with the imam over the ownership of the An-Noor Cultural and Community Centre in Acton. Sources who are informed of the investigation told Asharq Al-Awsat that there was competition with the imam over the ownership of the An-Noor Centre.

The sources also mentioned that Rashad gave his assistant orders via WhatsApp and told him to “get rid of Sheikh Arwani”. With this evidence, Scotland Yard concluded that the imam’s murder had nothing to do with the Syrian revolution or the Syrian regime as was previously suggested. Arwani was killed on the 6th of April 2015 at 11.15am and the sources said that “The imam was targeted by his partner in front of the An-Noor mosque and his bullet ridden body was found in his car”.

In a statement that Asharq Al-Awsat received a copy of yesterday, Scotland Yard said that Imam Arwani’s bullet-ridden body was found slumped at the wheel of his Volkswagen Passat in the Greenhill area of Wembley. An air ambulance was called but “he died after 33 minutes”.