A MILLIONAIRE businessman jailed for taking on a knife maniac who threatened to slaughter his family yesterday told of the hell his sentence has caused.
Munir Hussain was sent down for two and a half years on Monday for GBH with intent while the masked burglar who broke into his home with two accomplices brandishing 12inch knives was set free.
Munir, 53, told his lawyer the injustice had left him "stunned - in a living hell". He said: "I just can't understand a justice system that would jail me for trying to save the lives of my children.
"I don't know what I was supposed to do. I thought the jury would have families and have some idea what the terror of their children being threatened is like."
And he warned: "Every Briton desperate to protect their family from criminals could end up like me."
Psychologists say Munir has been left so traumatised by the attack and his jailing he could commit suicide.
The devoutly religious dad had returned from Ramadan prayers at his local mosque with his family to find career-criminal Walid Salem, 56, in his house in High Wycombe, Bucks, with two other masked raiders.
Salem, who has 54 previous convictions, tied up Munir, wife Shaheen Begum, sons Awais, 21, Samad, 15, and daughter Arooj, 18. They were then forced to crawl from room to room "in terror" before being made to lie down in the living room.
Awais, now 23, yesterday told The Sun the ambush was "every family's worst nightmare".
Crying
He said: "These men were wearing balaclavas and the knives they were holding to our necks were at least 12 inches long. They punched me and my father repeatedly in the head and face and pushed us all to the floor.
"I remember my dad trying to reason with them, saying 'take everything we have - just don't hurt us'. But the men were sneering and shouting 'We're gonna f***ing kill you'.
"My sister and mum were crying hysterically. We all thought we were going to die."
Awais said the situation only turned when his younger brother Samad managed to escape.
He said: "Samad ran from the room and was chased by two of the men. My mum was screaming: 'they're going to kill Samad'.
"My father then ran after them as I grappled the remaining raider.
"It was only later that we found out that Samad had fled upstairs, and had jumped out of the first floor window to the ground and leapt over several fences to get to my uncle's and raise the alarm."
A jury at Reading Crown Court heard that Munir then seized his chance and turned on one of his captors. Then with the help of brother Tokeer, who lived two doors down and had run to help, they set upon Salem with a metal pole and cricket bat.
Salem was struck so hard that the bat broke - and he suffered a fractured skull and brain injury. He was later deemed unfit to plead to charges of false imprisonment and given a two-year supervision order instead of jail.
But it was Munir who was jailed - with a judge telling him he needed to preserve "civilised society." Brother Tokeer, 35, was sentenced to 39 months.
Judge John Reddihough told them: "It may be that some members of the public, or media commentators, will assert that the man Salem deserved what happened to him - and that you should not have been prosecuted and need not be punished.
"However, if persons are permitted to take the law into their own hands - and inflict their own instant and violent punishment rather than letting justice take its course, then the rule of law, and our system of criminal justice, which are the hallmarks of a civilised society, would collapse."
But Munir had always been a respectable, law-abiding citizen.
He came to Britain from his native Kashmir in 1964, and founded a building acoustics company that employs ten people and last year had a turnover of £2.4million. He was also a former chairman of the Wycombe Race Equality Council.
Awais added: "Now not only have my sister and brother and young cousins been left without their fathers, the ten people my dad employed are set to lose their jobs as his business goes under.
"My father is the most law-abiding man in Britain. He loves this country and he respects its rules, laws and justice system.
"But - on that awful night - we thought we were going to die. All that was going through my father's mind was to protect his family. We didn't choose to be victims of crime. We were just innocents until this was thrusted upon us. But now our lives are wrecked because of a situation no-one could possibly ever prepare or legislate for, let alone control.
"We were victims of a horrific crime - but it's the injustice we suffered that has destroyed us. The fact that this man was let off is sickening. I can't even begin to tell you the level of trauma the raid - and my dad's sentence - has caused my family.
"My little sister barely leaves the house she's so terrified. My brother, who was always a strong character, sleeps beside me in my room. He won't even go downstairs on his own at night.
"My mother had a mini-stroke, brought on by the stress of the trial. I'm trying to hold my dad's business together. He poured his whole life and energy into it - but the accountants say, without him it will go under in six months.
"I spoke to my dad in prison yesterday and he's broken. All he kept saying was 'make sure you've locked the door and the windows, be careful'. He's petrified that we will be targeted again.
"The only comfort we have is the thousands of people who have pledged support - and the constant letters and phone-calls we're getting from all around the world."
Munir's barrister Michael Wolkind QC said he had been inundated with emails from people overseas too - all "staggered at the state of English justice".
He said: "Mr Hussain is a very calm, controlled, polite and religious man. It is a travesty that he has been treated so badly by English justice.
"When Mr Hussain went after his attacker he believed that the raiders had killed his youngest son as the boy was missing. His decision to hit back was taken in the agony of the moment.
"The criminal justice system has failed twice. The court was unable to sentence Walid Salem with sufficient harshness or Munir and Tokeer Hussain with sufficient compassion."
Victims' Rights Campaigner Malcolm Starr ran the crusade to free Tony Martin after he was jailed for life for shooting a burglar he caught in his Norfolk home.
He said: "Tony says no lessons appear to have been learned since he was convicted ten years ago. He supports the Hussains 100 per cent.
"These people should not be on the streets. Then they cry foul when they come off worse".
The brothers plan to appeal against conviction and sentence.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... -home.html
Where's the justice eh?
So we're not allowed to protect ourselves. Judge says the justice system should've sorted out the intruder... yeah the intruder with 54 previous convictions and got away with a 2 year supervisory order! Great system!
On another note; The brother does look like Almunia though:
I guess now we know why Al has been a bit off the boil recently...
