Three men deny murdering five people in Leicester shop explosion
Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd are also accused of plotting with one alleged victim to make a bogus insurance claim.
Thursday 18 October 2018 17:16, UK
Three men have denied murdering five people in a shop explosion and conspiring with one of the alleged victims to make a false insurance claim.
Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd are accused of plotting with Viktorija Ijevleva to commit fraud in the two months before she was killed when the blast destroyed a shop and flat in Leicester.
The three men are charged with conspiring with 22-year-old Ms Ijevleva to make a gain by dishonestly "pursuing an insurance claim in respect of a fire" at the shop in Hinckley Road.
Ms Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, 18, who was Shane's girlfriend, were all killed in the blast on 25 February.
Ali, 37, Hassan, 32, and Kurd, 34, are to face a trial after pleading not guilty to five counts of murder and five alternative counts of manslaughter at Leicester Crown Court.
The charge of conspiracy to commit fraud covers a period between 31 December 2017 and 26 February 2018.
Ali, of Drake Close, Oldham, Hassan, of no fixed abode, and Kurd, of Hillary Place, Leicester, spoke only to enter their pleas as three security officers accompanied them in the dock.
The defendants appeared in court in person and each was assisted by a separate Kurdish interpreter during the hearing.
Al three were remanded in custody by High Court judge Mr Justice Holgate until the start of their trial on 13 November.