Court rejects Ansreen Bukhari appeal over double murder sentence

The Court of Appeal refused Ansreen Bukhari’s bid to cut the minimum term on her life sentence, leaving in place the 26 years and 9 months imposed for the killings of Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin. The ruling, handed down by the Court of Appeal Criminal Division, keeps the focus on a case that moved far beyond the courtroom: a social-media-driven family dispute ending in two deaths on a Leicestershire road.

Ansreen Bukhari, whose daughter Mahek Bukhari was also convicted in the same case, had already been sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on 1 September 2023. Mahek Bukhari originally received a minimum term of 31 years and 8 months, before the Court of Appeal reduced her tariff in October 2025. Ansreen Bukhari’s separate challenge did not succeed, and her original sentence remains unchanged.

Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin were both 21 and from Banbury, Oxfordshire when they died on the A46 in Leicestershire at about 01:35 GMT on 11 February 2022. Prosecutors said the men were run off the road in a high-speed chase and described the killing as an ambush. The case followed the end of Ansreen Bukhari’s affair with Saqib Hussain and allegations of blackmail, details that have kept the story in public view long after the trial.

The appeal was heard in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division under the title Rex v Mahek Bukhari and others, with Lord Justice Warby, Mr Justice Lavender and Her Honour Judge de Bertodano on the bench. By rejecting Ansreen Bukhari’s application, the court declined to interfere with the sentence imposed in 2023, leaving the life term and minimum period intact.

The deaths also left a mark in Banbury. Friends and family of Hashim Ijazuddin later held memorial football tournaments in his name, including one that brought together 18 teams from around the country and another that raised more than £3,000 for charity. Those events reflected how the case has resonated well beyond the courtroom, tying together coercion, online visibility and the dangers of violence played out in public.