Ex-owner loses appeal against double murder conviction

Krishna Maharaj, a former leading racehorse owner in Britain, is set to remain behind bars in Florida for a double murder he claims he did not commit after a judge in Miami rejected his latest appeal against the sentence.

Maharaj has been in jail since 1987 after he was found guilty of the double murder in a Miami hotel of former business partner Derrick Moo Young and his son Duane a year earlier. Maharaj, 77, has always maintained his innocence claiming former drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, with help from local police, was responsible for the deaths.

The appeals court in Miami offered no written reasons for the latest judgement, although his claims of innocence were labelled as “preposterous” by a judge last year.