Chicken shop workers cleared of helping kidnap DJ before he was tortured to death

Two chicken shop worker have been cleared of helping kidnap a popular DJ before he was murdered in a gangland slaying ordered by the Tottenham Turks.

Mehmet Koray Alpergin, 43, was the owner of Turkish radio station Bizim FM and had connections with celebrities such as rapper P Diddy and internet sensation ‘Salt Bae’.

Mr Alpergin was tortured to death after he was kidnapped along with his girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak, 32, on 13 October 2022.

Brothers Zubair Iqbal, 32, and Kabeer Iqbal, 31, were accused of helping their friend Tejean Kennedy, 34, but an Old Bailey jury cleared them of conspiracy to kidnap today (thurs).

Zubair was convicted by the jury of the alternative lesser charge of assisting an offender while Kabeer was cleared of that charge.

Judge Sarah Whitehouse, KC, ordered reports and bailed Zubair ahead of sentence on 20 November but warned him: ‘Assisting an offender who carried out a violent kidnapping is very serious.

‘Ordering a pre-sentence report does not mean I am excluding a custodial sentence because I am not.’

Kennedy was convicted of the manslaughter of Mr Alpergin after a trial in 2024 and jailed for 18 years.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett, KC, earlier said: ‘Mr Alpergin was a well-known DJ and pop figure within the Turkish UK community in this country it is unclear how he came to the attention of an Organised Crime Group who in effect did kidnap, torture, and murder Mr Alpergin.

‘The group believed Mr Alpergin had something of value whether that be money drug or information.

‘There is a body of evidence the killing was organised by the so-called Tottenham Turks, the well-known organised crime group network.’

Zubair Iqbal owned a chicken shop called Veri Peri in Ponders End High Street, Enfield, and Kabeer worked for him therem, the court heard.

Mr Aylett had alleged Zubair and Kabeer Iqbal helped Kennedy in the planning of the kidnapping.

‘In the alternative they are charged with helping Tejean Kennedy to avoid arrest and that is really what the case against these two brothers comes down to.

‘The Crown do not suggest that either of the defendants played a direct part in the kidnap or murder of Koray Alpergin nor is it suggested that either of them had any idea Mr Alpergin was to be murdered.’

Zubair had told the jury he knew nothing about what Kennedy was doing and did not find out until his arrest in April 2024.

Kabeer said little to police following his arrest and did not give evidence at the trial.

Earlier Mr Aylett told the court how the couple had left a restaurant and were arriving back to Mr Alpergin’s home in Enfield at around 10.25pm.

‘Tejean Kennedy and three other men were lying in wait in a white van that was parked close to Mr Alpergin’s flat.

‘How did the kidnapper know when Koray would be returning home?

‘The answer to that is three weeks earlier one of Tejean Kennedy’s associates had placed a tracker on Mr Alpergin’s car.

‘On the night of the kidnap there were four other men sitting nearby in a Volkswagen Polo. They had access to data on a tracker and were keeping track on Mr Alpergin’s journey home.

‘The two groups of four were keeping in contact as to Mr Alpergin’s progress.

‘As Koray Alpergin got out of hid car a man ran towards him followed by three others and although Mr Alpergin tried to run away they quickly caught him.

‘He called out for help but he was frogmarched back past his own car and bundled him into the white van.

‘In due course the police found a blood stained fragment that had been torn from his shirt so he must have put up something of a fight but he had simply been outnumbered.

‘Ms Dalbudak had stayed in the car, she was later to tell police she heard sounds of a scuffle.

A masked man armed with a knife had appeared at the side of the car, he told her to be quiet moved her to the van.

‘The van was driven away with Mr Alpergin and Ms Dalbudak in the back. Ms Dalbudak has said the men were sitting on top of them.

‘The van was driven to White Hart Lane in Tottenham close to Tottenham Hotspur football stadium.

‘The alleyway leads to the back of wine bar and restaurant on Tottenham High Road called the Stadium Lounge.

‘It appears to have been disused.

‘There Koray Alpergin was subjected to a horrific and sustained attack in which he sustained no less than 94 separate visible injuries.

‘Just over 24 hours later Mr Alpergin’s body was taken to Loughton in Essex and dumped in some woods.

‘His naked body was found a few hours late by a man walking his dog.

‘Inside the Stadium Lounge Gozde Dalbudak spent almost two days shut up inside a lavatory.’

Mr Aylett said the brothers were friends with Kennedy who was a ‘sophisticated criminal’.

‘Tejean Kennedy was regularly in touch with both of the Iqbal brothers and the prosecution allege they helped him carry out the plan to kidnap Koray Alpergin.’

Mr Aylett said Kennedy left his telephone with the Iqbal brothers in Edmonton during the kidnap.

The phone was used to access the internet to create the impression Kennedy was in Edmonton.

Kennedy also changes into dark clothing leaving the clothes he had been wearing in the day with the brothers, the court heard.

‘For all these trials that have taken place in 2023 and 2024 no one has yet been convicted of Mr Alpergin’s murder,’ said Mr Aylett.

‘Three of the eight kidnappers, including Tejean Kennedy have been convicted of his manslaughter.’

He said two other suspects, Cem Orman and Ali Yildrim, left the UK within a few weeks of the murder and are believed to be in Turkey.

‘They would seem to have been the ringleaders,’ said Mr Aylett.

‘The prosecution allege that Tejean Kennedy was a close friend of Orman and Yildrim, the two men in Turkey. If Orman and Yildrim were the ringleaders, the prosecution allege that Tejean Kennedy also played a leading role in the events of that night.’

In July last year Tottenham Turks leader Izzet Eren, 41, was shot dead in Moldova as he sat outside a cafe in the capital Chisinau.

Eren was suspected of being behind the drive-by shooting in Dalston in May that left a nine-year-old girl fighting for her life and three men wounded.

Javon Riley, 33, was jailed for 34 years earlier this month for taking part in the bungled ride-by attack organised by the Tottenham Turks.

Kabeer, of Montagu Gardens, Edmonton, and Zubair, of Howard Road, Ilford, denied conspiracy to kidnap and an alternative charge of assisting an offender.
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