TWO students caught speeding at 121 mph in separate cars on the A9 told police they were trying to get to a prayer meeting at an Inverness mosque.

Mohamed Mubarak and Syed Safiullah were clocked on a 70mph stretch of dual carriageway at Daviot.

Twenty-three-year-old Safiullah was driving behind Mubarak (24) when they were stopped by police on mobile patrol on the approach to the Fort Augustus junction.

Safiulla’s solicitor Craig Wood told inverness Sheriff Court yesterday that the offence was committed at 11.18am on 6th April and both men had been trying to get to the mosque for noon prayers.

“He is a Muslim,” Mr Wood said.

“His god is Allah and he has to undertake specific religious rites every day and on a Friday he is required to attend communal prayer.

“He is well aware he shouldn’t have been driving at that speed but if someone is determined to exceed the speed limit that stretch of dual carriageway is as good a place as any because it’s dual carriageway on a downhill stretch and lengthy visibility.”

Mr Wood said Safiullah had a law degree studied over five years in India.

He was attending Warwick University studying for an M.Sc. and was planning to go back to practise corporate law in India.

Duncan Henderson, solicitor for Mubarak, said his client was also at Warwick University studying innovation and entrepreneurship.

Microfarad wrote:If they died, they would be admitted to heaven

james1v wrote:Many Muslims pray in other places that are not mosques. These two are liars.

Oeditor wrote:How do you do an M.Sc. in law? Or if not in law, why would he be doing it? And why were the pair of them rushing from Warwick to Inverness to pray? Had they heard about the four and twenty virgins?