AN Iraq war veteran jailed for the racist murder of a Bangladeshi waiter almost 18 years ago has lost a bid to have his conviction overturned.
Shamsuddin Mahmood, 26, was shot by a masked gunman in front of diners while working in an Orkney restaurant in 1994.
Former soldier Michael Ross, 33, was jailed for life and ordered to spend at least 25 years behind bars after being convicted of the killing at the High Court in Glasgow in 2008.
Ross, who was just 15 at the time of the murder, had his appeal against the conviction heard at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh earlier this year.
His legal team argued that police interviews, carried out without a lawyer present when Ross was 15 and 16, were "unfair". It was claimed the Crown's actions, in relying upon the contents of the interviews, were incompatible with his human rights.
However, Scotland's top judge, the Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton, who heard the case with Lords Carloway and Bonomy, upheld the conviction yesterday.
The case against Ross, a former Black Watch soldier decorated for outstanding service in Iraq in 2005, was brought to court after police carried out a cold-case review in 2007. The jury found him guilty of murder by majority verdict.
He was later given a further five-year sentence for trying to flee court after the verdict and stashing weapons in a car.
Ross's legal team may seek leave to take the appeal to the UK Supreme Court after they have considered the judgment in full.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article