AN IRAQI Kurd refugee, who fled Saddam Hussein's army to start a new life in England, was last night starting a life sentence for stabbing a countryman to death in a busy North-East shopping centre.

The 28-year-old knifed fellow refugee Mohammed Ali six times in the head and neck in the middle of Middlesbrough's crowded Cleveland Shopping Centre last December.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Ali Mahmud fled Iraq after years of brutal torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Mahmud, who denied murder, earlier told how he was bound, blindfolded and savagely tortured by Hussein's soldiers after he fled national service.

He said that while in Iraq he was shot, his father tortured and his uncle killed.

Mahmud claimed he believed Mr Ali may have been the man who carried out the shooting.

The knife attack followed a row between 22-year-old Mr Ali and Mahmud over the victim's job at a poultry farm.

Mr Ali had been using Mahmud's name and National Insurance number, with all his earnings going into Mahmud's account.

The dispute began after Mr Ali, who arrived in Britain seeking asylum in 1999, demanded his money.

Mahmud, of Southfield Road, Middlesbrough, was convicted of murder following a two-week trial.

During the hearing, Mahmud claimed he became a Kurdish freedom fighter during the March 1991 uprising in Iraq.

Speaking through an interpreter, Mahmud said: "They knew I was a Kurd and an army deserter. I was advised by my family to leave the country and I obeyed them."

He fled to the UK in May 1999 and applied for asylum, living in Kent before moving to Redcar and then Middlesbrough.

He was granted Home Office leave to stay in the UK until March 23, 2004.

Cleveland Police mounted a nationwide manhunt in the wake of the stabbing, and senior officers leading the case spoke about their relief at Mahmud's sentencing.

Detective Inspector Colin Green said after the trial: "No doubt he (Mr Ali) thought he was on the verge of a better life in a country where peace and security are the norm.

"Ironically, he died a violent death, struck down and savagely killed by a fellow Iraqi.

"His killer, Ali Mahmud, claimed he had been tortured by the Iraqi government for trying to avoid national service and had walked through Iran and into Turkey and Greece to escape the ruling regime in his own country.

"It is clear he had suffered from violence in the past, possibly through military action, and that his life had been at risk. He has three bullet wounds to his left arm and one to his left foot.

"But he brought violence to the streets of Middlesbrough, which was shockingly witnessed by people of all ages, and a young man needlessly died."

Judge Peter Fox told Mahmud: "There is only one sentence in these circumstances which I may pass, it is one of life sentence."

The judge decided not to make a recommendation to the Home Secretary that Mahmud be deported, and said that the matter should be "approached afresh" when the political situation in Iraq was assessed at the time of his release.

Reporting of the trial was banned by Judge Fox at the start as Mahmud faced a separate charge of wounding, but this was ordered to rest on file and reporting restrictions were lifted.