“I didn’t have no choice,” said a man on trial for the alleged murder of a 24-year-old in Slough when asked why he was involved in the incident which lead to a death.

Hassan Al-Kubanji, 21, of Peabody Avenue, London, along with Riaz Miah, 21, of no fixed abode, are currently on trial charged with the death of Mohammed Rafaqit Kayani.

The 24-year-old died from a fatal stab wound to the chest during an incident in Keel Drive on August 30, 2022.

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The prosecution’s case is that the two defendants had ‘chased’ Mr Kayani from a playground in Concorde Way to the Slough Hindu Temple after an ‘altercation’ before he was ‘stabbed in the chest’.

But Al-Kubanji denied these claims and told the jury it was self-defence and he ‘didn’t have a choice’ after Mr Kayani allegedly threatened him with a knife.

He told the court that Mr Kayani had approached himself and Miah in the park from one set of steps and was ‘aggressively swiping at his side and arms’.

The 21-year-old said he was using his Gucci bag to defend himself while he and Miah were moving backwards towards a second set of steps in the park which Mr Kayani then ran up.

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CCTV footage shows the two defendants ‘chasing’ Mr Kayani from the park but Al-Kubanji told the jury they was running from the area as he thought he was going to be ‘ambushed’.

When asked by a member of the jury through Judge Heather Norton why he had followed Mr Kayani from the park, Al-Kubanji said: “I felt like I was being ambushed.

“I felt threatened and endangered – why am I not going to run away?”

Al-Kubanji said that once he and Miah had reached the temple that Mr Kayani had allegedly ‘continued to swing’ at him.

“I didn’t have no choice,” he said. “I didn’t [initiate] in no fight, I didn’t go to the park to start a fight, I didn’t leave my house with a balaclava, I didn’t make phone calls premeditating a fight.

“So how as it my fault that the fight started? At the temple Mr Kayani is still swinging his knife at me.”

When asked why Al-Kubanji had taken what was allegedly Mr Kayani’s weapon from the temple after the incident, the defendant said he was worried someone else would use it against him.

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He said: “I didn’t know how many people were coming – I didn’t know if people we going to chase me with that weapon, that’s why I took it.”

The trial continues.