TWO murderers whose botched ‘honour killing’ plot killed an innocent couple have had their appeals thrown out by top judges.

Hisamuddin Ibrahim, 22, who planned the arson attack at the home of his married sister’s lover, was one of four men found guilty of the double murder in August last year.

His best friend Habib Iqbal, 26, of Strone Road, Newham, was the leader of a gang of three who torched the wrong house in London Road, Blackburn, in October 2009, killing Abdullah and Aysha Mohammed and orphaning their three children.

Both men had their conviction appeals rejected this week.

Jeffrey Samuels QC, for Ibrahim, of Shelley Avenue, Newham, east London, claimed there was not enough evidence against him to bring to trial and that the judge misdirected the jury.

Ibrahim, who threw away his mobile phone shortly after the attack, was convicted after the jury heard that he wanted to punish the man, and had looked up murder methods on the internet the week before.

Sir John Thomas also rejected an appeal against his 28-year minimum jail sentence, saying: “This kind of honour killing needed to be marked by a severe sentence . . . they cannot be tolerated in this society.

“The vice of such conduct is exemplified by the fact that two entirely innocent people were killed and two young children left without their parents.”