A young woman who watched her innocent boyfriend being knifed to death in a cold-blooded killing outside a Bradford bar said justice had been done after his murderer was jailed for life.

Natasha Elsworth had been walking hand-in-hand with father-of-one, Mohammed Basier, 27, known as ‘Bas’, seconds before Kurdish Iraqi asylum seeker Dana Abdullah plunged a knife through his heart in the attack outside the West End Bar in Lumb Lane, Manningham.

Sentencing Abdullah yesterday, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge James Stewart QC, said he would serve a minimum of 18 years for the “cold-blooded murder of a totally innocent man” in front of Miss Elsworth, who had been “terrified” of going out ever since the attack on February 22, 2004.

The judge warned the failed asylum seeker he would be deported to Iraq when his prison sentence ended.

Speaking after the sentencing, Miss Elsworth, who gave evidence during Abdullah’s trial which led to the killer’s conviction, said: “I’m just glad that it is all over, that justice has been done.”

She was among members of Mr Basier’s family at Bradford Crown Court when the judge sentenced Abdullah.

As he was led from the dock, the killer shouted “I’m not guilty!” at the grieving family, despite evidence during the five-day trial which caused the jury to find him guilty of Mr Basier’s murder.

Jurors heard that Abdullah had been drinking with a fellow Kurd, Mariwan Salih, on the night of the murder and that he had been slapped and punched by two Asian men after being accused of spilling a drink.

After being thrown out of the bar, he vowed to return and made 14 phone calls recruiting fellow Kurds to “come and fight the Pakistanis”. He even woke up a friend at his bedsit in Ash Grove, Bradford, to ask him to fight but the man refused.

Eventually, he returned to the bar with three friends, and fatally attacked Mr Basier as he left the West End Bar to get a taxi home.

Judge Stewart said: “The only thing that you said to him was that you wanted a fight but you have a strange idea of a fair fight.

“You had a knife and three thugs to back you up, he was unarmed and holding hands with his girlfriend.

“Without warning, you brought up the knife and plunged it into his chest. You were aiming at his heart, the most vulnerable part of the human body.

“He ran a short distance and fell, mortally injured.”

Abdullah then went on the run, entering France with false documents.

He then went to Greece where he was arrested earlier this year under a European arrest warrant.

The killer was previously given a seven-month jail sentence for his part in violent clashes between Iraqis and Afghans in Greece in 2001, before he came to Bradford in 2002.

Judge Stewart yesterday praised the bravery of witnesses at Abdullah’s murder trial and the professionalism of the police in their pursuit of the fugitive.

“This was a cold-blooded murder of a totally innocent, unarmed man, in front of his woman,” he told Abdullah. “Natasha, understandably, has been terrified since of going out, less she also be attacked.

“Mohammed Basier’s wife’s life and that of his daughter have been devastated by your cruel and horrendous actions.”