BIRMINGHAM, England, July 20 (UPI) -- Eight men were acquitted Thursday in Birmingham, England, of deliberately killing three South Asians who were run down during last year's British riots.
After the verdict, Mr. Justice Julian Flaux, who presided over the trial in Birmingham Crown Court, urged the community to remain calm, The Daily Telegraph reported. He said violence would dishonor the memories of the victims -- Haroon Jahan, 21, Shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Nasir, 31 -- who were killed as they stood guard over local businesses.
"On any view, this has been a terrible case -- a tragic and pointless loss of three young lives," Flaux said.
Prosecutors said the defendants had a plan to drive a car into a crowd of pedestrians, using two other cars to get them out into the street. They produced security camera footage that appeared to show the drivers of the cars acting in concert and described a "chariot charge" at the victims.
The deaths came at a time of tension between the black and South Asian communities in Birmingham.
Tariq Jahan, who was with his son when he died, has been honored for appealing for calm, addressing young people outside his home a few hours after the three victims were killed.
