Neo-Nazi graffiti scrubbed off wall in Bradford

Racist graffiti promoting the violent neo-Nazi group Combat 18 has been scrubbed off a wall in the Manningham area of Bradford.

Tell MAMA reported the graffiti to Bradford City Council and West Yorkshire Police on July 30, after a local outreach officer spotted it.

West Yorkshire Police informed Tell MAMA of its removal a day later, adding that it will increase patrols in the local to provide reassurance to communities.

Police are reviewing CCTV footage as part of their ongoing hate crime investigation.

The graffiti included the statement “keep it white” – a popular example of the phraseology within neo-Nazi and extreme nationalist circles which have been used to promote clothing and white power music in Canada and Poland.

Blood & Honour and Combat 18 are proscribed terrorist organisations in Canada.

National Action were the first extreme far-right group to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.

William Pierce, who left the American Nazi Party to take over the leadership of the National Alliance in the 1970s, pledged to: “do whatever is necessary to achieve this white living space and to keep it white.” His death in 2002 split the movement, which had been identified two years earlier, as one of the most dangerous hate groups in the United States, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League.

Combat 18 was born from the stewarding of the British National Party but had always rejected traditional party politics, splitting from the party in the hopes of triggering a ‘race war’. The group took direct inspiration from the neo-Nazi terrorist group The Order, which had bombed a synagogue and murdered radio host Alan Berg in 1984, advocated terroristic violence through the mantra of “leaderless resistance”. The FBI’s infiltration of the movement linked them back to William Pierce, who authored The Turner Diaries, a white supremacist novel which has inspired domestic terrorism in the United States, the UK, and other countries.

Other neo-Nazi terrorists, like David Copeland, the nail-bomber who left three people dead and 139 injured, following a hate-filled campaign against minorities and the LGBT community in Soho, London, in 1999, were linked to Combat 18 via the National Socialist Movement.

The graffiti is alarming for reasons specific to Bradford and concern the spectre of fascist, racist violence in the city and other northern areas in 2001.

Writing in 2002, Larry Ray and David Smith argued that the social unrest and riots were linked “to an increase in racial violence, the long-standing mistrust and disillusionment with the police, the overt and taunting presence of the BNP and other far-right groups and the entrenched poverty and unemployment which existed within the cities”.

Years earlier, in 1995, there were protests and riots in Manningham in response to police conduct, accusation officers had always denied.

As the author Daniel Trilling noted: “In Bradford, then Oldham, then Burnley, then Bradford again, local tensions spilled over into violence between whites and Asians. All three shared the same broad patterns of economic deprivation and racism – and in all three towns the situation was made worse by the BNP and its fellow-travellers on the far right”.

Other academics put the disturbances into a wider context, spanning from the underlying and long-standing fears of neo-fascist mobilisation.

The Observer documented, how, in the summer of 2001, that the National Front and Combat 18 were targeting Oldham and Bradford, intending to provoke violence.

Supporters of the National Front had travelled from London, Essex, Birmingham and Wales and converged on the town of Oldham, intent on provoking violence, in a clear example of a coordinated campaign of race hate. Eleven people were later convicted. And there were fresh calls to stop the National Front from agitating in Bradford a month later. The then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, acquiesced to repeated calls from West Yorkshire Police and local politicians to ban the march, days before it was due to take place. Members of the National Front did, however, turn up in the city, with as many as two hundred supporters flying in from Belgium to attend, with others driving to Bradford. A counter-protest in the Centenary Square drew around 500 people. In the afternoon, supporters of the National Front spilt out of an adjacent pub and racially abused some locals, which resulted in retaliatory violence. Speaking to The Observer newspaper on July 8, 2001, Tahir Hussein said: “The whole thing kicked off with some white lads calling us Pakis. There’s lots of youths running around the streets and the police seem to have lost control”.

During the 12 hours of riots and disturbances, 164 police officers were injured after being targeted with bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and fireworks. More than 80 people required hospitalisation, and there over 110 criminal incidents recorded – ranging from assaults to criminal damage, causing £27m in damages.

The then Chief Superintendent Phil Read had dismissed accusations that the police response to the violence and disturbances were disproportionate. During a press conference, he said: “Troublemakers, both local and from outside Bradford, appear determined to commit criminal acts despite the best efforts of the police, the council and responsible members of the community”.

Locals in Manningham had also blamed outsiders for the violence and property damage.

Academics also researched how media narratives in a post-9/11 climate shifted from discussions of Asians to Muslims.

Two years later, the court of appeal heard that the sentencing judge had disregarded the fears of the Asian community when giving “excessive” sentences to Asian men involved in the riots, compared to sentences given to white men found guilty of public order offences.

Michael Mansfield QC said the Asian community in Bradford felt: “fear, anger and frustration at the presence of the National Front and the perceived failure of the police to protect the Asian community from racist aggression,” adding that the trial judge should not have ignored the “matrix of fear” the National Front had created for Asian communities in the region.

Of the 15 appeals before the court, appeal judges reduced the sentences in only four, citing individual circumstances. In total, the judges ruled that prison terms for more than 100 people, ranging mostly from four to five years, were an appropriate and proportionate response that reflected the seriousness of the events.

A documentary about the riots and disturbances in Bradford was released in 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories: Bradford, Combat 18, Far Right groups, hate crime, Neo-Nazi, Neo-Nazi graffiti, News, West Yorkshire

Man targets Muslim woman with racist abuse then punches adjacent bus window

A Muslim woman, who wears the hijab, described the racist abuse she faced from a man who stared at her and said out loud: “there are too many of these people” and “they need to go back to their countries” on a crowded bus in Bristol on July 22.

The woman consented for Tell MAMA to tell her story anonymously.

She added that a woman, who she believed was their partner, had told him to stop, to which the man laughed, adding that he ‘cannot be racist as he has a black television’.

When departing the bus, however, the man then punched the adjacent window to the Muslim woman with such force that it “shook”.

She then spoke to the driver who was, in her words, dismissive of her concerns and denied hearing the man making racist remarks, points she will raise with a complaint to First Bus.

Tell MAMA reported the incident to Avon and Somerset Police on her behalf.

She described the man as being white, who was in his mid-to-late twenties, or early thirties.

The act of racism denial has been subject to several important and influential academic studies. One such study, published in 1993, argues that the act of denial takes several forms: the denial of racist intent, trivialising and/or downplaying the significance of the racist incident, inverting the criticism where dominant groups are targets of discrimination, or, through acts of positive self-presentation. But, as van Dijk argues further, other strategies exist outside of outright denial: the justification of events which denies its negative intent, the use of excuses to deny services due to the role of others or ‘special circumstances’, or to blame the victims (on an individual or political level).

The act of self-presentation, therefore, functions as a disclaimer, where the ‘but’ appears beforehand to help justify discriminatory practices, and to “protect the in-group as a whole from accusations of racism”. Racism denial has a socio-political function: to deliberate and undermines anti-racist analysis, and to undermine measures against it, and, as van Dijk asserts, externalising racism and racist acts to the political fringes, obscures how institutions and politicians have an indirect influence and “contribute to the legitimation of  white group dominance, that is to the reproduction of racism”. As others contend that nationalism has overtaken traditional understandings of racism to “sanitise and deracialise racist discourses”.

Avon and Somerset Police recorded a 236.23 per cent rise in religiously aggravated hate crime offences between 2009 and 2017, with a 38 per cent rise between 2016 and 2017. Sue Mountstevens, PCC for Avon and Somerset, said 507 people had reported racist hate crimes in the three months that followed the EU referendum result. Reports of racist hate crime to Avon and Somerset Police had increased by 46.36 per cent between 2009 and 2017 (up from 1,540 reports to 2,254).

Tell MAMA verified 58 reports (7 per cent) of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic abuse on transport networks in 2017.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

 

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Categories: Bristol, First bus, hate crime, News

Ayub Nurhussein & Farah Ahmed, Charged with Terrorism Offences

A second man has been charged with terrorism offences after a pair were arrested in south-west London.

Ayub Nurhussein, 28, was charged on Friday with funding terrorism and possessing a document containing information likely to be useful to a terrorist, Scotland Yard said.

He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.

On Thursday, Farah Ahmed, 42, was charged with having a document containing information likely to be useful to a terrorist and disseminating terrorist material.

He was remanded in custody after appearing before magistrates and is due at the Old Bailey on August 16, the Metropolitan Police said.

Both men, of south-west London, were arrested at a house on July 16 and detained under the Terrorism Act.

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Categories: Ayub Nurhussein, Farah Ahmed, News, Terrorism Offences

DPD driver did Nazi salute and called Muslim women ‘ninja’

A driver from the delivery firm DPD said “ninja” and performed a Nazi salute from their vehicle as a Muslim mother and her two daughters left a café in Wimbledon.

The incident took place at around 18:00 GMT on July 23.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, a family member described how the incident left them feeling vulnerable, and how it left their mother in further shock given the relative diversity in the Wimbledon area.

All three women were wearing the hijab when the Islamophobic and anti-Muslim incident occurred.

Tell MAMA reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police on behalf of the family, after informed consent was given.

The family member described the driver as white, male, and in his mid-thirties.

They have since written a letter of complaint to DPD who are now investigating the driver.

The dehumanising and racialised language is emblematic of how perpetrators construct essentialised ideas of Muslim women, of Muslim identity (or ‘Muslimness’), where their religious identity and clothing is seen to embody all that is “problematic and threatening about Muslims and Islam”.

And, given the gendered nature of this incident, it demonstrates how such religious visibility reinforces, in the minds of perpetrators, at least, the “age-old stereotypes about Muslim women as meek and submissive”.

The theory of intersectionality, was, after all, intended to offer a framework to explain the particularities in which black woman are oppressed and subordinated, a framework rooted in black feminist thought. Crenshaw, who helped popularise the term, went on to argue, that the oppressive barriers facing black women were more to do with how “particular categories are negatively valued and exclusionary”, not just essentialist thinking. Other academics integrated these theories with ideas around embodiment.

Sara Ahmed explored how “inter-embodiment” sought to define embodiment as a lived experience within “the social experience of dwelling with other bodies”, which includes the social body, born from the ‘historically determined’ antagonistic encounters between those bodies deemed and not deemed ‘others’. Ahmed argues: “In contrast, I want to consider inter-embodiment as a site of differentiation rather than inclusion: in such an approach ‘my body’ and ‘the other’s body’ would not be structurally equivalent (even as impossible bodies), but in a relation of asymmetry and potential violence”.

The Metropolitan Police investigation is ongoing, and the family consented to have their story told anonymously, to raise awareness and to demonstrate how incidents like this can happen in areas like Wimbledon.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories: hate crime, Hijab, London, Metropolitan Police, News

Security guard smirked as he asked Muslim man: “Do you have a bomb in the car?”

The Metropolitan Police are investigating after a security guard targeted a Muslim man at a parking complex in Canary Wharf, insisted that he empty the contents of his boot, before asking: “Do you have a bomb in the car?”.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke of his understandable frustrations and sense of humiliation as the security guard sought to assert his authority over him, adding the nature of the question had caught him unawares, so, when he asked the security to repeat himself, he did so with a smirk.

He did, however, challenge the security guard, adding that such a question would not have been asked of him if he was white.

It was at this moment that another security guard attempted to alleviate the situation, and before he left, the Muslim man took out his phone to photograph or film the perpetrator. The security guard, however, responded and demanded a separate body camera from his colleague, since his camera was allegedly switched off or not working, but the Muslim man was able to capture footage which he then passed on to the police.

He described the security guard as being a black male in his mid-to-late 30s or early 40s.

Totalising narratives that frame Muslims more broadly as potential violent threats sit within a framework of securitisation. Though others contest the idea of a “suspect community”, securitisation is broadly concerned with mobilisation of the “politics of fear”, of presenting an issue as an existential threat, which intends to reconfigure social relations around distrust. But academics argue that for the theory to take hold, audiences must be persuaded and accept such claims. In broader terms, others have documented the ‘securitisation of infectious diseases’ and other health concerns. Others contest that “securitisation and domestication (which is concerned with the role of the state in matters of cultural difference) represent the dual strategies of exclusion or inclusion”.

Muslims have reported examples of discriminatory, hurtful, and dehumanising language directed at them that referenced bombs or explosives. Others have described how teaching staff misapplied safeguarding policies, including over a Muslim child’s water pistol and their father’s legally-obtained permit to use firearms for clay pigeon shooting.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

 

 

 

 

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Categories: hate crime, London, News, securitisation

Teenager Inspired by Anders Brevik Convicted in the UK

A teenager who saw Anders Breivik and those behind the Columbine High School massacre as his “poster boys” has been convicted of attempting to possess a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Kyle Davies, 19, ordered a Glock 17 handgun and five rounds of ammunition from an online gun dealer on the dark web after developing a “deep and persistent” interest in mass shootings during his A-Levels.

The order was intercepted by Homeland Security at Newark Airport in New York, with police arresting Davies at his home in Gloucester after delivering a dummy package to him.

A jury at Gloucester Crown Court unanimously convicted Davies of attempting to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and attempting to possess five rounds of ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Their verdicts followed a two-week trial at the court.

Davies insisted he had bought the gun and ammunition to kill himself and was not planning a mass shooting.

But when officers searched his bedroom after his arrest, they discovered handwritten notes relating to planning a massacre and Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.

A USB drive contained thousands of pages of documents relating to massacres and explosives, including a number of how-to guides.

Officers from the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit said they had stopped Davies at “phase one” of his plan and found no evidence that he had identified a target.

Judge Paul Cook will sentence Davies at a later date, telling the defendant that he required reports to assess the level of danger he poses to the public.

Detective Inspector Kevin Till, of the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: “The depth of research Davies had carried out and the extent of his planning under what he himself termed ‘phase one’ leaves us in no doubt he was intending to follow in the footsteps of the murderers he idolised.

“The intervention by Homeland Security at Newark Airport undoubtedly led us to a very dangerous individual.

“A meticulous investigation, closely supported by forensic experts and the CPS, has clearly shown his intent to harm others and, ultimately, ensured he never had the opportunity to move on to ‘phase two’.”

Howard Phillips of the CPS said: “Davies’ notes did not identify a target and did not demonstrate an ideology or aim that would support a charge under terrorism legislation.

“The challenge for the CPS was therefore to prove that his intent when purchasing the hand gun was to endanger the lives of others, and not just to take his own life as he claimed.

“We will thankfully never know what the consequences would have been had the gun and ammunition Davies attempted to import actually made it into his hands.”

James Mancuso, of Homeland Security Investigations in London, said: “We stand shoulder to shoulder with our UK law enforcement partners and their fight against firearms trafficking.

“Through this partnership, we have been able to prevent a man from obtaining a firearm and ammunition, which has potentially foiled a mass casualty event.

“We commend the dynamic and impressive work of the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit and other UK law enforcement teams that participated in this operation.

“Their dedication to ensuring the safety of their residents has undoubtedly saved lives.”

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Categories: Anders Brevik, Columbine School, Kyle Davies, News

Ahmadiyya Muslims Targeted for Violent Islamophobic Hate in East London

An Ahmadiyya Muslim stall in London was verbally abused and repeatedly attacked by a man who called them ‘non-Muslims’ and ‘deceivers’.

The stall, which has been running for many years on weekends in East London and which has the motto – “Love for All – Hatred for None”, was approached by a man who snatched the free information leaflets which were being given out and took a very aggressive stance to stall-holders who were simply handing them out. The individual then warned the peaceful stall holders that if they came back, he would physically assault them and made violent threats.

Within about 10 minutes, the individual came back to the stall and targeted a 66-year-old member of the Ahmadiyya community who was volunteering at the stall. He took the leaflets off the man, poured out more hateful abuse and then started to mock the stall holders as ‘non-Muslims’. He also threw some of the leaflets in the face of one of the stall-holders with such force that it injured him. This was then followed by at attempted assault on an elderly man who was volunteering at the stall with the perpetrator then walking off and returning a third time to the stall.

By this time a small crowd had gathered around the Ahmadiyya stall. The perpetrator then berated Ahmadiyya Muslims saying that they ‘had no right to call themselves Muslims’. He also went onto say that Ahmadiyya Muslims “had no right to deliver this message” and that they should “stop delivering this message in the future”.

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Categories: Ahmaddiya, East London, intra-Muslim hate, News

Javid Challenges Anti-Immigration Rhetoric & ‘Zionist’ Conspiracy Theories in Counter-Extremism Speech

The Home Secretary will call on public figures to “moderate their language” to halt the spread of poisonous ideologies.

In a speech on Friday, Sajid Javid is expected to call for an honest “national conversation” about extremism and challenge anti-immigration rhetoric, which he says is stoking division and fear.

It comes after Donald Trump sparked a racism row when he sent tweets telling four female Democratic politicians to “go back” to the countries from which they came.

Mr Javid is expected to say: “I’m from an immigrant family, I know what it’s like to be told to go back to where I came from.

“We must confront the myths about immigration that extremists use to drive divisions.

“We know the scale is exaggerated to stoke up fear and that they use immigration as a proxy for race.

“Anyone can challenge the myths peddled by extremists that deepen divisions.

“So tell your friends, shout it loud and proud: people from minority backgrounds did not steal our jobs, they’re not terrorists, that there is no global ‘Zionist conspiracy’.”

Mr Javid will outline a three-pronged approach of tackling extremism – confronting narratives, strengthening communities’ resilience and tackling causes of confronting extremist narratives – in what is being touted as one of the first major interventions since the Counter Extremism Strategy was launched in 2015.

He will call for further integration within society, more help for people to learn English, greater support for communities and a celebration of national identity.

“I will not flinch from confronting extremism. I will do everything in my power to stop those who seek to undermine our country,” Mr Javid is expected to tell civil society groups, charities and academics.

“If we are to stop extremism in its tracks we must have the courage to confront it, the strength to take decisive action, and the foresight to tackle the root causes.

“Public discourse is hardening and becoming less constructive.

“Everyone has a part to play: broadcasters who must not give a platform to extremists; police who must swoop on the worst offenders; public figures who must moderate their language.”

The speech will take place following the publication of a poll carried out by the independent Commission for Countering Extremism, which is working on a review of the threat and response to extremism in England and Wales.

Almost 3,000 people replied to the call to share their experience of extremism, the commission said.

The results show more than half (52%) of the respondents have witnessed extremism, with 45% of them saying they had seen it online and 39% of them reporting seeing it in their local area.

Of those, 59% said they had seen Islamist extremism, 37% far right extremism and 29% far left extremism.

Speaking ahead of the Home Secretary’s speech entitled Confronting Extremism Together, lead commissioner Sara Khan said: “I was shocked to see that more than half of the respondents have witnessed extremism in some way, and that two-fifths of those that had witnessed it said they’d seen it in their local area.

“The findings underline the breadth and severity of the concerns we have in 2019.

“People are scared that violent extremists will incite or carry out an attack.

“Communities are also deeply concerned about the impact of groups exploiting local tensions to spread hate and division.”

 

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Categories: anti-Immigration Rhetoric, conspiracy theories, News, Sajid Javid, Trump, Zionist

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe “handcuffed and shackled at the ankles” says Labour MP

A British-Iranian woman was “shackled like a caged animal” by Iranian authorities as they transferred her to a hospital mental health ward, an MP has claimed.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “handcuffed and shackled at the ankles”, according to Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, which the Foreign Office warned would be “completely unacceptable” and contrary to international norms.

Downing Street has urged Iran to allow Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family to visit her in the hospital ward, as well as demanding her immediate release.

The 40-year-old was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport while travelling with her young daughter in April 2016 and sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spying, a charge she vehemently denies.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said she was transferred from Evin prison on Monday to the mental health ward of Iman Khomeini hospital in Tehran, where she is being held under the control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Her father said he visited the hospital on Tuesday but was not allowed to see his daughter and she has not been allowed to contact her family.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Siddiq said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family have no idea how she is being treated following the transfer.

The MP for Hampstead and Kilburn added: “The family fear she may be drugged or being tortured and may be forced to sign a confession to unnamed crimes.”

Ms Siddiq also asked what urgent steps ministers are taking to establish the treatment Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is receiving, adding: “What protests have the Government made regarding the fact that Nazanin was shackled like a caged animal on her way to receiving urgent medical care?”

Foreign Office minister Andrew Murrison said the UK is seeking consular access and it would be “cruel” to deny Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe access to her family.

He added: “I deplore the maltreatment of prisoners wherever it occurs and the description she has given is completely unacceptable. It is completely contrary to any international norms.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman also told a Westminster briefing: “We are extremely concerned about Nazanin’s welfare and call for her immediate release, and we urge Iran to allow family members to visit her and check on her care.”

Before being transferred, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe told relatives: “I was healthy and happy when I came to Iran to see my parents.

“Three-and-a-bit years later and I am admitted to a mental health clinic.

“Look at me now, I ended up in an asylum. It should be an embarrassment.

“Prison is getting harder and harder for me. I hate being played in the middle of a political game. I just hate it.”

In a press release, the Free Nazanin Campaign said it is not known what treatment she is receiving or how long she is expected to remain in hospital.

The transfer comes after Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe went on hunger strike for 15 days last month in protest against her “unfair imprisonment”.

Mr Ratcliffe joined the hunger strike in solidarity with his wife, and camped on the pavement outside the Iranian Embassy in London.

The couple’s five-year-old daughter Gabriella has stayed in Iran with her grandparents since her mother’s arrest.

Mr Ratcliffe said: “Nazanin hoped that her hunger strike would move the Iranian authorities, and it clearly has.

“Hopefully her transfer to hospital means that she is getting treatment and care, despite my distrust of just what pressures can happen behind closed doors. It is unnerving when we don’t know what is going on.

“I am glad her dad has been down there to keep vigil outside.

“Mental hospital has its worries at the best of times – but particularly when kept isolated and under the control of the Revolutionary Guard.

“Even now it still seems like games of power and control are being played by the Iranian authorities – even at the point of hospitalisation.

“We hope again this is the beginning of the end. And yet, we were also here last summer.

“We will be following up with the new prime minister whenever that is decided to ensure he takes personal responsibility for Nazanin’s case.”

Earlier this year, Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership hopeful Jeremy Hunt granted Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection in a bid to resolve her case.

In a 2017 gaffe, Boris Johnson, Mr Hunt’s rival for the post of prime minister, said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran “teaching people journalism” – despite her family’s insistence she was there to visit relatives.

He has repeatedly said the responsibility for her continued detention lies with the Revolutionary Guard.

Ellie Kennedy, Amnesty International UK’s individuals at risk campaigner, said: “Yet again, the fear must be that the Iranian authorities are playing games with Nazanin’s health and wellbeing.”

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Categories: Foreign Office, Khomeini, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, News, Tulip Siddiq

Salih Khater – Guilty of Trying to Kill Cyclists & Police Officers Outside the Houses of Parliament

A student has been found guilty of trying to kill cyclists and police officers outside the Houses of Parliament.

Salih Khater, 30, ploughed his Ford Fiesta into a pedestrian and a group of cyclists who had stopped at a red light in Parliament Square on August 14 last year.

He then careered into a security lane and crashed into barriers as two police officers jumped out of the way.

The attack was caught on CCTV footage which was played in court.

The Old Bailey heard Khater, of Highgate Street, Birmingham, wanted to cause maximum carnage and it was “miraculous” that no-one was killed.

But Khater claimed he came to London to find the Sudanese embassy to get a visa, “got lost” around Westminster and panicked.

The jury deliberated over two days before rejecting his explanation and finding him guilty of two charges of attempted murder.

Khater made no reaction as he was found guilty of the charges.

Mrs Justice McGowan remanded him into custody to be sentenced on October 7. She ordered pre-sentence reports to help her determine Khater’s potential dangerousness.

Jenny Hopkins, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “It was only quick reactions and good luck that stopped Salih Khater killing anyone when he drove his car into cyclists and police officers outside Westminster.

“His driving was so precise and determined that it was difficult for skilled accident investigators to repeat the manoeuvre he carried out.

“Whatever his motives, this was not an accident. It was a deliberate attempt to kill and maim as many people as possible.”

During the trial, prosecutor Alison Morgan QC said Khater’s attack was “premeditated and deliberate”.

She said: “He caused widespread fear and chaos but miraculously, and contrary to his intentions, he did not kill anyone that day.

“Those who were faced with a vehicle being driven at them at high velocity somehow, and largely by their quick responses, managed to avoid death or very serious injury.”

Ms Morgan told jurors Khater’s reason for the attack was unclear but by targeting officers guarding the Palace of Westminster the defendant had a “terrorist motive”.

The court heard how Khater was born in Sudan and was granted asylum in Britain in 2010, after claiming he had been tortured in his home country.

In the months before the attack, the defendant showed signs of “paranoia” about British authorities, it was claimed.

He had failed his accountancy exams at the University of Coventry and his work as a security guard had dried up.

On May 24 last year, he emailed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to express concern about an “event” involving the intelligence services, the court heard.

The day before the attack, Khater had travelled to Peterborough and unsuccessfully applied for a fast-track UK passport, the court heard.

He then set off from Birmingham to London just before 10pm, arriving after midnight.

Evidence from his mobile phone showed he had looked up maps for 10 Downing Street and Westminster on the internet as potential “deliberate targets”.

CCTV captured Khater arriving in Parliament Square just before 1am and driving around Westminster, checking the layout for the attack five or six hours later.

He then parked up and rested for four-and-a-half hours in Windmill Street in Soho before returning to Parliament Square for further reconnaissance.

He went on to do four laps of the square before launching the rush-hour attack.

Pedestrian Paul Brown was crossing the road when Khater’s car “came out of nowhere” and hit him, causing bruising and grazes.

Krystof Tokarski and Anya Breen were cycling to work and were waiting at traffic lights when Khater revved his engine and knocked them down.

Mr Tokarski suffered grazes and a broken little finger while Ms Breen was thrown over the bonnet, fracturing her collar bone.

Other people were trapped under their bikes, with some screaming in pain.

The defendant made a sharp turn into a slip road, going 32mph, forcing Pc Darren Shotton and Pc Simon Short to dive out of the way.

As armed police removed Khater from the car, the defendant confirmed he was acting alone but failed to explain himself.

Giving evidence, Khater said he wanted to return to Sudan to visit his sick mother and had Googled Downing Street and Westminster in his bid to find his way around central London.

He told jurors he “got lost” and “panicked” when he collided into cyclists and was trying to pull over when he crashed into barriers in the security lane.

He said: “I remember something made me panic. The car was not in my full control at the time.”

Commander Clarke Jarrett, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Salih Khater carried out an appalling act to deliberately target both members of the public and police officers, trying to kill and injure them.

“My thoughts are with the victims and I hope today’s verdict means those affected can begin to put the ordeal behind them.

“Through our investigation, we found that Khater acted completely alone.

We made extensive inquiries and searched his address and his digital devices, seeking evidence that could explain why he did this.

“Khater remained silent throughout our investigation and only at his trial offered the implausible explanation that it was an accident.

However, the evidence showed otherwise and he now faces a considerable time in prison.”

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Categories: cyclists, News, Salih Khater, terrorist attack, Westminster