Guzel, 38, was shot outside his family restaurant, Umut 2000 in Dalston, on June 20 last year. Gunduz, 40, was convicted of conspiring to murder him. Judge Mark Lucraft KC said the injuries Guzel suffered were permanent and irreversible during Friday’s televised sentencing.
The court heard that the attack followed threats and an attempted demand for hundreds of thousands of pounds amid a rivalry between the Hackney Turks and Tottenham Turks. Guzel told jurors he was speaking to his wife while on a break from work when he heard a loud bang and realised he had been shot. He later said in a victim-impact statement that the attack had taken away his sense of safety and changed the course of his life.
Gunduz denied involvement. Guzel told the court that his family had not paid money to gangs. The sentencing judge also noted the lasting effect of the shooting on the victim; the minimum term attached to Gunduz’s life sentence is 20 years.
The case was heard against a backdrop of other violence linked in court to the feud. Gunduz had been targeted in a May 2024 shooting near the Elvin Restaurant in Hackney, where a nine-year-old girl was seriously injured. In a separate trial, Javon Riley, 33, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 34 years for causing grievous bodily harm with intent to the girl and attempting to murder three men.
The sentence concludes the criminal proceedings against Gunduz for the attack on Guzel. The evidence described in court included earlier threats against members of Guzel’s family and shootings at family-linked properties. Guzel said the attack’s effects continued well beyond the physical injuries.