AN IRAQI asylum seeker stabbed a fellow countryman to death while ranting and shouting, a jury was told.

But Samsuddin Farhan Hamad denied David Aubrey QC's assertion during cross examination on day four of the murder trial at Preston Crown Court.

Hamad, 20, who had the proceedings relayed through a Kurdish speaking interpreter, claims two white men attacked Mokhler Mostafa in Infirmary Street, Blackburn, before running off.

The court heard that Mr Mostafa from Warrington had been visiting Hamad who he knew from time spent in Great Yarmouth.

Hamad told the court that Mr Mostafa, also an Iraqi asylum seeker, had decided to leave just before midnight on Sunday January 19 because he had work on Monday.

The jury heard that Mr Mostafa left his mobile phone and car registration documents behind, and took some of his spare clothes, despite them being wet after just being washed.

Mr Aubrey asked: "You have a quick temper don't you?"

Hamad replied: "No."

Aubrey asked: "You had an argument with your friend. He wanted to go quickly to get away from you."

Hamad replied: "No not to get away from me, that was his decision."

Aubrey asked: "Shouting and ranting, you stabbed him five times to death, didn't you?"

Hamad said: "No."

Aubrey asked: "Are you lying to the jury?"

Hamad said: "No."

Hamad told the jury the murder weapon, a kitchen knife, was not his.

He said he only owned one knife which had snapped when he tried to prise open the petrol cap on a car.

Mr Aubrey asked him why he said the murder weapon was his when Kenneth Jackson, an Infirmary Street resident, found Hamad and Mr Mostafa on the night of the stabbing.

Hamad said he had done that because two white men had stabbed his friend and he was scared that Mr Jackson would stab him.

During the afternoon, both sides summed up their cases to the jury.

Mr Aubrey said the white men were a figment of Hamad's imagination and that he stabbed Mr Mostafa in a frenzied way after they had an argument.

Mr Jack Price QC, defending, said the prosecution had no witnesses, no forensic evidence and no motive and that no one could doubt an asylum seeker could be killed by white men in a "notorious" area like Infirmary.

(Proceeding)