A senior Bradford solicitor today wept with relief after a jury unanimously cleared him of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Rashid Majid, 39, a partner with Khan’s solicitors in Sunbridge Road, had faced a two-and-a-half year ordeal and two trials after being accused of being part of a plot to derail a gangland murder trial.

After being found not guilty, Mr Majid told the Telegraph & Argus it had been a difficult two and a half years but he and his profession had been vindicated.

He said: “The practices and procedures I followed were consistent with those of solicitors up and down the country. If a witness can’t come to you, you see them wherever and whenever.

“I had faith in my innocence and I always felt the truth would prevail.”

Mr Majid’s company had been representing four men accused of the murder of Shazad Hussain, who was gunned down in his car in an alleyway off Amberley Street, Leeds Road, Bradford, in 2004.

The prosecution claimed Mr Majid, and three relatives and associates of the accused, tried to undermine the case by seeking to dissuade two brothers, Adnan Ahmed and Mazhar Iqbal, from giving evidence and taking steps to render their information worthless.

Adnan Ahmed, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and will be sentenced later, told the jury at Leeds Crown Court during the two-week trial that the solicitor took a statement from him in Bradford Moor Park.

Ahmed claimed that Mr Majid was responsible for a number of untrue facts in his statement.

But Mr Majid told the court there was no truth in Ahmed’s allegations.

During police interviews read to the court the solicitor said Ahmed had twisted the facts and blamed him. He said the witness had been on drink and drugs and even his brother had called him a liar.

He described Ahmed as an unreliable witness and said: “I think his credibility is an issue,” adding: “You will find that there is not one iota of evidence to corroborate what this witness is saying.”

Mr Majid had been arrested by police at his home in Eccleshill, Bradford, in January 2007.

He faced trial at Leeds last year but the jury could not agree a verdict.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided to pursue a retrial which today resulted in the solicitor’s acquittal.

The jury of seven women and five men took less than four hours to reach its verdict.