Ishtiaq, Ahmed
Ishtiaq Ahmed was convicted in January 1991 of murder and received a sentence of life imprisonment.
The CCRC inherited an application for review of the conviction from the Home Office in March 1997.
At trial, the prosecution depended substantially on the evidence of a witness.
Following investigation, the CCRC concluded that this witness had retracted and changed their account several times after the trial and had made contradictory statements to the CCRC.
The CCRC considered that this inconsistency was itself a matter affecting the witness’s reliability and that these changes of account might have led the jury at trial to doubt the witness’s credibility.
The CCRC referred the conviction in August 2000.
The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in October 2002.