A COMPLEX conspiracy preceded the New York shooting on the night of November 22 1996, according to US probation documents.

Qadar is said to have become embroiled in a bitter saga over an arranged marriage originating with a family in Pakistan.

According to the official documents submitted before the courts, the drive-by shooting was worth £41,000. The money was allegedly offered by the bride's father, Malik Rahmat, a wealthy Pakistani land owner.

He had betrothed his daughter, Rubina, to her first cousin Khurram Khan. But she protested the betrothal and secretly married Qadar's cousin Shaukat Parvez, 33, in March 1994.

Under death threats from her father she married Khan in December 1994 but fled to the United States with Parvez soon after.

Records from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Non-Immigrant Information show that Qadar arrived at Newark International Airport aboard a flight from Manchester on November 15.

He reportedly spent seven days looking for the pair in New York.

On November 22 Parvez was shot in the chest as he went out to run an errand. The court was told that shots were fired from the passenger-side window of a parked car containing Qadar and another man, Malik's son, Omar.

Qadar, a 42-year-old father of six, was arrested in January 2001 when he was returning from working in Holland. His wife Fehmmeda said he had been away earning money to support his family and docked at a London port on a 10am ferry.

But the police had called at their Holland Street property three times in 1999 in a bid to contact Qadar, before his arrest. After an agreement with the US government, Qadar, was extradited on October 11 last year. The American authorities agreed that as a condition of the extradition he would be spared the death penalty.

Qadar's trial was brought before the Federal Court in Brooklyn. He was found guilty of murder-for-hire, conspiring to murder-for-hire and using a firearm for murder-for-hire.

Qadar's wife Fehmeeda and brother Khalid flew to America for the trial. Both sat in silence as the verdict was announced.

Omar Malik was also charged but has been fighting extradition in a Pakistani jail.