Teenage girlfriend and rival silenced by fear

Published on Tuesday 23 July 2002 01:00

TWO key witnesses in the trial refused to testify in court because of the fear of retribution from Nicholas van Hoogstraten’s henchmen.

It is believed van Hoogstraten was behind a plot to kidnap the daughter of his business rival Michaal Hamdam, who was able to link the millionaire with the Raja murder.

Mr Hamdam was so concerned about his personal safety that he left Brighton and moved to Beirut, where he felt he was safe from the retribution of van Hoogstraten.

Van Hoogstraten’s teenage girlfriend Tanika Sali had also provided police with evidence connecting him with the murder, but then retracted her evidence the day before she was due to go into the witness box at the Old Bailey.

She has been reported to the Attorney General and faces a possible charge of perverting the course of justice.

Mr Hamdam told detectives van Hoogstraten had approached him to ask if he knew anyone among his Lebanese associates who would carry out a contract killing shortly before Mr Raja was murdered.

He passed on documents containing a photograph of Mr Raja and details of his home address.

Mr Hamdam was also in dispute with Mr Raja at the time of the killing and he claimed that shortly afterwards van Hoogstraten told him: "I have done you a favour with Raja."

When Mr Hamdam discovered the details of his testimony had been passed to the van Hoogstraten defence lawyers, he told police his life was in danger.

Shortly afterwards, teachers at his daughter’s primary school said a stranger had arrived at the gates claiming he had come to take the girl home. She had already been collected by relatives and the case was referred to police as an attempted child abduction.

Mr Hamdam also reported seeing strangers waiting outside his home in London. Eventually he decided he had to leave the country.

Detective Inspector Andrew Sladden told the court: "He was in a terrible state before boarding a plane to Beirut. He claimed he had heard that van Hoogstraten said he would not make it to the trial, and that if van Hoogstraten went to prison, neither he nor his family would survive.

"He feared he was going to be murdered."

Efforts were made to set up a live television link with Beirut to allow Mr Hamdam to give his evidence but they proved unworkable. The trial judge eventually ruled Mr Hamdam’s testimony could not be read out to the jury.

Van Hoogstraten’s girlfriend, Miss Sali, 18, was also due to provide a central part of the prosecution case when the trial opened against the businessman. She gave a statement to police when van Hoogstraten allegedly assaulted her during a domestic row while he was on bail awaiting trial.

Then, in March this year, she made a second statement to police which contained damning evidence against him. She claimed van Hoogstraten had introduced her to Robert Knapp, saying he was "one of my hitmen". She also alleged van Hoogstraten had stated on a separate occasion that Mr Hamdam was "as good as dead" for giving evidence against him.

However, the day before the case went to trial, she went to a solicitor and asked to retract her statement, saying she had been forced by the police to lie about van Hoogstraten. She refused to go into the witness box to be questioned about her boyfriend. In spite of being warned of the consequences and questioned at length by both the judge and prosecution counsel during legal argument in the jury’s absence, she declined to say why she refused to give evidence.

Miss Sali, who met van Hoogstraten when she was just 16, insisted it had nothing to do with concern for her own safety.