Five men and a woman have appeared in court today after being charged with offences relating to the aftermath of a murder in the Bradford area.

Three Bradford men, Waqas Ahmed, 25, of Brantwood Road, Heaton; Sarfraz Ahmed, 32, of Brantwood Drive, Heaton, and 26-year-old Hassan Ali, of Thorn Lane, Heaton, all pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender by doing acts which enabled a murder suspect to leave the country following the death of Mohammed Feazan Ayaz.

A man and a woman, Iqrab Choudhury, 29, of Sandford Road, Bradford Moor, Bradford and 33-year-old Kaukab Khan, of Galsworthy Avenue, Heaton, Bradford, both denied doing acts tending or intended to pervert the course of justice by cleaning the inside of Unit 2 at the Denholme Business Centre on July 1, 2019.

A sixth defendant 39-year-old David Burnett, of Clayton Avenue, Clayton, Bradford, also pleaded not guilty to a perverting the course of justice charge which alleges that he deleted CCTV footage between June 30, 2019, and July 3, 2019.

A seventh male defendant did not attend today’s hearing before the Recorder of Brad-ford Judge Richard Mansell QC.

During the hearing at Bradford Crown Court, he fixed the four-week trial start on June 27 next year.

All six defendants who attended court had their unconditional bail extended until the trial date.

In March last year, three men were jailed for life for the murder of Mr Ayaz, 20, whose naked body was dumped in Saffron Drive, Allerton, in the early hours of July 1, 2019.

Raheel Khan, 27, of no fixed address, was told he would have to serve a minimum of 30 years in prison.

Suleman Khan, 20, of Sandford Road, Bradford, and Robert Wainwright, 26, of Mannville Terrace, Bradford, were also found guilty of murder and they were each sentenced to a minimum of 25 years behind bars.