Overview
- Prosecutors told jurors that on March 27, 2019 three men claiming to be Interpol officers forced Tomasz Samel into a white Peugeot van and drove him to the Liverpool area for interrogation.
- The Crown links the attack to an HMRC seizure of about ten million illicit cigarettes from a unit in Aston that was taken on February 22, 2019 and is said to have cost the smuggling group roughly £1 million.
- Court evidence describes Samel suffering catastrophic burns to about 75% of his body after being doused in petrol and set alight, and jurors were told he died in hospital on June 21, 2019 from those injuries.
- Four men stand trial—Tobiasz Kozlowski, Neil Jones, Kevin Wooden and Kye Arthur—with Jones having pleaded guilty to manslaughter and related conspiracies while others deny murder; Kozlowski’s wife is accused of helping an offender.
- The Crown opened its case in June 2026 presenting forensic and witness evidence that it says shows a planned reprisal, the trial is continuing and the jury must decide how contested testimony and pleas assign legal responsibility.