A 20-year-old Iraqi Kurd has appeared before Blackburn magistrates charged with the murder of a fellow countryman.

Samsuddin Farhan Hamad, of Infirmary Street, Blackburn, was sent in custody to Preston Crown Court.

It is alleged that he stabbed to death Mokhler Mostafa shortly before midnight on Sunday, January 19.

The incident was said to have taken place in Infirmary Street, Blackburn.

Mr Mostafa, 26, was stabbed five times, twice in the head and three times to the left hand side of his chest, during an incident on Infirmary Street.

Mr Mostafa, 26, had his application for asylum turned down and was supposed to be living in the Warrington area waiting for a date for him to leave the country. Both he and Hamad, who has also had his application for asylum rejected, are from Northern Iraq.

Hamad, who has lived in the United Kingdom for just over two years and in Blackburn for the last five months, has appealed against the decision not to allow him to remain in this country. Blackburn MP, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has written to Home Secretary David Blunkett calling for a probe into the death.

Mr Straw was responsible for the asylum system for four years when he was Home Secretary following the 1997 Labour election victory. He said he was "very concerned and disturbed" about the tragic death.

MPs in East Lancashire expressed alarm last year when it was revealed that 15 per cent of refugees placed in East Lancashire went missing.