SPECULATION continued to mount yesterday following the killing of a former imam in north London earlier this week.

Abdul Hadi Arwani, a critic of Syria’s Assad regime, was found shot in a parked car in Wembley on Tuesday morning.

Officers from the homicide and major crime command were put in charge of the inquiry but the case has now been passed to the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism unit, implying that the father-of-six might have been killed for speaking out against the Syrian leader.

Mr Arwani, who is thought to have fled Syria as a teenager, has been described as an outspoken critic of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The Met said the investigation was in its “very early stages” and officers remained “open-minded” about the motive for the shooting.