Two men jailed for combined 48 years after brutal axe attack in A2 ‘turf war’ near Canterbury
Two men have been jailed for a combined 48 years after an axe attack on a major road left a man with "near-fatal" injuries. Esmatullah Paktiawal and Dawood Khan tried to murder Nasrat Ahmadzai and caused grievous bodily harm with intent to Aleem Marufkhail during a fight beside the A2 dual carriageway near Canterbury. During a six-week trial, Canterbury Crown Court heard the victims and defendants were involved in rival people smuggling operations - something each of them denies.
Jailing both men for 24 years at the same court today, Judge Simon James said: "This confrontation was part of a turf war between competing organised people-trafficking gangs. "During the confrontation, you together meted out extreme violence. Armed with weapons, you attacked your perceived rivals with a merciless ferocity.
"One victim had his skull splintered with an axe, putting him in a coma for weeks and leaving him with permanent cognitive impairment. On fleeing the scene, you effectively left him for dead, lying unconscious on the side of the A2. "Had he not been airlifted to a specialist trauma unit, he almost certainly would have died."
Judge James told the duo their second victim was "struck repeatedly with the axe" and suffered "horrific and deep wounds to his hands and head".
Following the assault, he said, both men fled the scene, disposed of the weapons and their blood-soaked clothing.
"Thereafter, you, Khan, bought a one-way ticket back to Afghanistan and attempted, albeit in vain, to distance yourself from the vehicle you were driving by falsely claiming it had been stolen before the confrontation," he added. Mr Ahmadzai sustained skull fractures and a brain haemorrhage, while Mr Marufkhail suffered two large cuts and fractures to his hand, as well as deep scalp injuries and a skull fracture. The incident occurred in the early hours of December 14 last year, when the defendants, driving a Mercedes, and the victims, in a Seat, stopped their cars on the side of the road.
During the trial, prosecutor Amanda Hamilton said the violence stemmed from a "turf war" between the two groups. "The Mercedes pulled in front of the Seat just on the approach to that slip-road [at Wincheap]. The Seat was forced to pull over - it had to brake suddenly," said the prosecutor.
"As Nasrat stopped the car, he got out. He didn't know who it was forcing him off the road and thought it might have been the police. "The two defendants got out [of the Mercedes] and attacked him.
"Aleem was sitting in the back and got out to assist Nasrat and the defendants set about him as well, leaving them both in a very bad condition.
"The defendants drove away.
"Aleem was seriously injured and Nasrat was in a life-threatening condition." Lying in a pool of his own blood, Mr Ahmadzai is said to have heard one of his attackers say: "Leave him, his story is finished". Asked during the trial about the moment he woke up in hospital, he told jurors: "I could see my hand but I was not feeling my arms or my legs.
"I thought maybe my legs were not there.
My right side would not move but my left side fingers were moving." A second passenger in the Seat - an 18-year-old boy named Faizullah Ahmadzai, but no relation - escaped the onslaught unscathed but later told police how he had watched as "a chaotic movie scene" unfolded before fleeing in fear into nearby woodland. But Khan's barrister, Charles Burton, argued that it was the victims who had initiated the violence, and that his client was, in fact, the "peacemaker" and had acted in self-defence.
He claimed the defendants had pulled up behind their Seat on the hard shoulder as it appeared one of the occupants inside the vehicle was assaulting another.
As Khan, 28, approached the vehicle, Mr Burton said Mr Ahmadzai and Mr Marufkhail "turned their attack to him". "They were first to attack; they had weapons in their hands," he said.
He described married dad Khan, who came to the UK in 2017 and worked for Amazon, as "someone who had ambitions and dreams", only to have to abandon them to look after his brother following a serious road accident. "It is not a glamorous life, but it is a life he is enjoying and fulfilling," added Mr Burton.
"He is not someone who remotely fits the profile or picture of the sort of person the prosecution suggest he was - out for revenge, out to attack people."
During the trial, the defendants sought to blame each other for the crime. Cross-examining Paktiawal, Burton insisted: "You were the primary target of their attack. Speaking through a Pashto interpreter, 36-year-old Paktiawal, who was living at Napier Barracks in Folkestone at the time of the attack, answered simply: "This is a lie".
Representing Paktiawal, Ronnie Manek said not only did Khan's evidence to the court demonstrate "arrogance and lies" but that his argument of self-defence could be questioned.
"He said he was a spectator, not committing any acts of assault. So why raise self-defence if you were simply observing, unless you did the physical acts," he explained. Furthermore, Mr Manek explained how phone messages implicated Mr Marufkhail in the business of moving migrants both in and out of the country.
"The prosecution has not produced a shred of evidence that their witnesses of truth were not involved in people trafficking," he said.
Picture: Kent Police
The court heard that following the onslaught, Khan and Paktiawal fled the scene, while Mr Ahmadzai and Mr Marufkhail stayed put and called 999. Mr Ahmadzai was airlifted to hospital, where doctors discovered fragments of his skull had been pushed into his brain.
An injury expert told jurors: "This injury would have killed him had he not received prompt and specialist medical attention". In a victim impact statement read out by the prosecution during today's hearing, Mr Ahmadzai told of the long-lasting effect his injuries have had.
"I was unable to speak, and my whole right side was disabled," he explained. He also spoke of the mental toll the incident has had on him, saying: "I'm afraid of the people who did this. "I'm afraid they will hurt me again because they told me to forget the case.
"I'm scared they will hurt me when they are released from jail. "I was busy all the time (before the attack). Now, I'm tired of just sitting and sitting.
"Me, at a young age, should be able to work, but I can't. I used to work a lot in construction and building. Before this incident happened, I was a strong man.
"I miss the person I was before December 14, 2024."
A cricket bat, a black metal bat, rubber-headed mallet, claw-hammer and a flick-knife were recovered following the attack. But the expert stressed the axe was the most likely to have caused the injury. Mr Marufkhail was also taken to hospital with gashes to his hand, "consistent with someone trying to protect oneself from a chopping motion," the court was told.
In his impact statement today, Mr Marufkhail spoke of how he now suffers from nightmares and anxiety. He said: "I used to be able to use my left hand without problems, but now I can't even hold anything in it as it has become so weak after the tendons were slashed. "It's not just physical scars I'm left with; I'm now scared all the time.
"I avoid everything now, especially social events like parties. "I suffer from nightmares so bad that I had to go to my doctor and am due to start therapy. "This has been the worst experience of my life."
In the days following the attack, Khan - a former bronze medallist at the British Taekwondo championships - "left the country in a panic" and went to Afghanistan after the incident before returning home "to face the music," the court was told.
He was arrested and charged in Barnet on January 28. It was not until February 23 that Paktiawal was arrested in Manchester and also charged. The court heard the dad-of-seven had come to the UK on a small boat and claimed asylum on the basis that he had worked for NATO and UK troops during the US-led occupation of Afghanistan.
It was also said that his father was killed by the Taliban. Both defendants had denied all charges against them, but a jury convicted Khan, of Burnt Oak, Barnet, London, and Paktiawal, of Britannia Place, Plymouth, of attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent on Friday. The defendants were cleared of two charges of possessing an offensive weapon in respect of the axe and cricket bat.
In mitigation today, Mr Burton said Khan's wife's spousal visa expires next month. This means she faces having to go back to Afghanistan with their young daughter. He added that Khan came to the UK and did "all the right things", as well as becoming a carer for his brother.
The lawyer stated his client "has never been convicted in all these years of any criminal offence", Mitigating for Paktiawal, Mr Manek he said he was of previous "positive, good character". "He had been employed by US and UK military in Kabul as an Afghan national with a wife and seven children," he continued.
"This was exceptional and out of character for Paktiawal, who's 36, and has not previously engaged with the justice system either here or in Afghanistan. "To partake in such a high level of criminality is out of character." Judge James handed both men 19 years for attempted murder, with a consecutive five years for causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
They will have to serve two-thirds before being released on licence.
"Both of your circumstances will be notified to the Home Office, who will give separate consideration as to whether, on your release, you should be permitted to remain and or re-enter the UK," he added.