Raees Jamal set to continue giving evidence
When the jury returns to court, Raees Jamal, who began giving evidence on Friday, will continue in the witness box, being cross-examined.
'You, perhaps, didn't feel the same about her?'
Raees Jamal admits Natasha Akhtar thought they were in a relationship. Akhtar's barrister, Timothy Raggat KC, asked Jamal asked if he knew she felt they were in a relationship. He said: "You, perhaps, didn't feel the same about her?"
Jamal said he considered them to just be friends. He tells the jury he didn't have his own car and was regularly driven around by Akhtar and often drove himself.
Mr Raggat also asked Jamal if he often drove the car at high speed and he confirmed he did. Mr Raggat asked: "It wasn't unusual for her to be with you when you drove the car fast?"
Jamal replied: "No, it wasn't."
Jamal has also confirmed that, while he knew Mahek Bukhari, Akhtar had never previously met, seen or spoken to Mahek.
'You never told Natasha anything about it at all'
Jamal confirms that not only did he tell Akhtar he was going to Tesco to support Mahek and her mother, he also didn't tell her anything about what was happening.
Mr Raggat asked Jamal if Akhtar was sat in the "darkened back" of the Seat Leon throughout the pursuit and Jamal confirmed that was correct. He confirmed Akhtar also couldn't hear the phone conversation Jamal was having with Rekan Karwan in the Audi TT as they discussed how to stop the Skoda Fabia that Saqbib and Hashim were travelling in.
'"Don't get my car damaged"
During the pursuit, Mr Raggat said, Akhtar warned Jamal: '"Don't get my car damaged". Jamal confirmed that was right.
Jamal also said that the collision he had with the Skoda - which, he said, happened a while befofe the fatal collision - was not the kind of collision that someone in the back would have noticed.
He said that he and the others in his car, including Akhtar, only became aware that the Skoda had crashed after they were heading back to Leicester and saw the vehicle on flames.
No contact with Natasha Akhtar since arrest
Jamal said he had two phone calls with Akhtar after she set off back home towards Birmingham and had not spoken to her since. Describing the two calls, he said: "I was checking to see if she had got home and she was still en route, then the second one she was telling me the police were following her."
He said the phone call ended abruptly and he has not spoken to her since.
Scared and angry after seeing what Mohammed Patel told police
Sarah Vine KC, for Mohammed Patel, asked if he was "scared and angry" when he heard what Patel had told the police and he confirmed that was true. He said Patel had told the police "things that weren't true".
He was asked: "Is it fair to say that everything from the early hours of February to today has been completely off the chart compared to anything situation you've been in?"
Jamal said that was correct. She asked: "And covering your tracks involved getting others to cover their tracks and that concealment for you, was motivated by fear?" He said that was true.
Jamal denies going to Leicester to help Mahek
Ms Vine tells Jamal he travelled from his home in Loughborough to Leicester with the intention of helping out Mahek, who was dealing with "someone who was unpredicatable - might even be dangerous".
She told him: "You went to Leicester that night in order to help Mahek."
But he replied: "I wasn't aware of the situation until I was outside Rekan's."
She said: "There was a plan. You knew about that in advance."
Jamal said that wasn't true. He said: "We went to go shisha, as we did nearly every other day."
Jamal denies wanting to scare Saqib
Ms Vine said: "She wanted to scare him - not hurt him, not do any violence - to scare him to leave her alone."
He said "no". Ms Vine said the others from Leicestershire joined him to help Mahek and scare Saqib.
He denied, again, that there was any intention to scare Saqib. He said: "That number of people I was with that day was normal. We always go out."
Ms Vine suggests Patel was never invited out to socialise, but only to scare Saqib. He told Ms Vine, "That's your opinion".
She said: "In order to scare this unpredictable man into doing what Mahek needed him to do was to get rid of this embarassing content from his phone and to then leave him alone. You wanted to present an intimidating picture."
He said: "We were there because Mahek was frightened."
She accused Jamal of telling the others to bring balaclavas. He replied: "No one was wearing a balaclava that night."
Eight people are on trial for killing Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin
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