The brother-in-law of Scotland’s former first minister Humza Yousaf has gone on trial accused of extortion and dealing class A drugs.
The case follows the death of a man who fell from a window in Dundee after allegedly being threatened.
Ramsay El-Nakla, 37, is on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh and is the brother of Mr Yousaf’s wife, Dundee councillor Nadia El-Nakla.
El-Nakla does not face a charge in relation to the death of Ryan Munro who fell from a flat on Dundee’s Morgan Street on 10 January 2024.
But he is is accused of dealing cocaine from the flat between 9 and 11 January 2024, as well as at another home in the city, which he denies.
And El-Nakla and his co-accused Stephen Stewart, 52, Jennifer Souter, 39, and Victoria McGowan, 43, are all alleged to have put Mr Munro “in a state of alarm and apprehension of physical harm” and “did extort a sum of money from him by threats”, at the flat, the court heard.
Stewart, Souter and McGowan additionally face a charge specifically in relation to Mr Munro’s death.
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Court papers allege they “did threaten and intimidate him, thereby placing him in an extreme state of fear and alarm for his safety, and cause said Ryan Munro to escape said flat from a window at height, causing him to fall from said window and strike the ground, whereby he was so severely injured that he died there and you did kill him”.
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Mr Munro fell from the window in Dundee after allegedly being abducted by Stewart, Souter and McGowan; a charge they deny.
Stewart, McGowan and El-Nakla all deny dealing heroin from a flat in Dundee between 1 July 2023 and 11 January 2024.
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Souter, McGowan and Stewart, of Dundee, deny dealing cocaine from the same flat between 1 July 2023 and 11 January 2024.
McGowan, of Aberdeen, who was said to be on bail at the time, is also accused of dealing class C drug Bromazolam between 1 July 2023 and 11 January 2024 at both Dundee addresses.
She is further accused of possession of cannabis, and class C drugs Zopiclone and Pregabalin on 11 January 2024.
All four deny the accusations against them. The trial, before Judge Lady Drummond, continues.
