Mohammed Arshad is led away from court after being found guilty

Mohammed Arshad, 49, who has served as a justice of the peace and on Tayside Racial Equality Council, is now in custody to await sentencing.

He put a price of �1,000 on the head of Abdullah Yasin, 26, whom he wanted "removed from this earth" after discovering he had married his daughter in September 2001.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Mr Yasin was from a different caste and in a culture of arranged marriages, the rules had been broken by marrying a younger daughter before her older sister had settled with a husband.

Arshad was trapped in an undercover police operation but the question of how officers became involved was not revealed during the trial.

The supposed hitman was a detective and the conversation between him and Arshad was secretly taped.

Register office

Mr Yasin told the court that he and Insha Arshad carried on their love affair at a distance. He had tried unsuccessfully to persuade his and her family to agree to a marriage.

Fearing she may be sent back to Pakistan, they married in secret in a register office in Edinburgh then went their separate ways, hoping to secure the Arshads' blessing and a full Muslim wedding.

Insha's brother Sadeeq was asked in court if the marriage was a "stain on your family honour, an insult to your family?", which he said was the case.

There's no way at any time guilt would come into my mind because I don't feel guilty Mohammed Arshad Recorded in secret

Mr Yasin said the first sign of trouble came when Arshad accused him of "spreading the whisper" around Dundee about the wedding.

The jury heard that Arshad discussed his problem with the undercover detective posing as the hitman in a service station.

The accused suggested something that looked like a racist attack on Mr Yasin's brother-in-law and other relatives in the Midlands which might cause him to go home, revealing his whereabouts as a result.

Rambling answers

On the tape, Arshad told the police officer: "There's no way at any time guilt would come into my mind because I don't feel guilty.

"It is him who is guilty. He has done this without my consent. Even if I have to remove my daughter at a time, I would still do it."

Arshad did not give evidence at the trial but his lawyer argued that his client's sometimes rambling answers to the police officer's questions on the poor quality tape did not prove he was trying to have his son-in-law murdered.

After the jury reached its verdict, the court heard that Arshad, of Landsdowne Square, Dundee, was currently a voluntary patient in a mental hospital.

The judge, Lady Smith, said she wanted to see a report from the senior psychiatrist treating him before passing sentence next month and refused to consider bail until then.