Abdul Arwani
Abdul Hadi Arwani was found dead in his car in in Greenhill, Wembley, on 7 April Met Police

A man has appeared in court in connection with the murder of Syrian-born preacher Abdul Hadi Arwani.

Arwani, 48, was found slumped at the wheel of his VW Passat in Wembley, northwest London, on 7 April, with gunshot wounds to his chest.

The father of six was an outspoken critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Khalid Rashad, 61, appeared in Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court on Saturday (25 April), charged with explosives and firearms offences.

Rashad, from Wembley, confirmed his name, age and address in court, after being charged on Friday (24 April) by police.

As part of the investigation, police conducted a search of the An Noor Cultural and Community Centre, a mosque in west London. Arwani was a founding member of the mosque and preached there from 2005 until 2011.

Rashad, who is a director at the centre, was arrested as a result of these searches.

He remains in police custody and is due to appear in Harrow Crown Court on Monday morning.

Rashad is the second person to be charged in connection with the preacher's murder.

Leslie Cooper, 36, from Brent in northwest London, appeared at the Old Bailey last week.

Arwani was reportedly "sentenced to death" in Syria for photographing a site of a massacre in his hometown of Hama in 1982.

The cleric was said to have attended protests against the regime outside the Syrian embassy in London in 2012.