Brothers accused of assaulting armed Manchester Airport cops used ‘high level of violence’

From the Manchester Evening News.

To recap, readers might remember this incident during late July last year. A piece of video was circulated showing two men, from the Islamic Community, being subdued by police officers at Manchester airport. From the very beginning it was obvious that this was the culmination of a longer struggle and that the two men had been sufficiently violent that this was suitable restraint. It quickly became known that a third officer, a woman, had had her nose broken only minutes earlier. However the short clip, out of context was enough to provoke riots and demonstrations.

A few days later in Southport Axel Rudukabana murdered three small girls at a dance workshop and injured several more and their teacher.  There was an outburst of anger in Southport and several other towns which was quickly clamped down on, the Prime Minister describing the concerned citizens as ‘far Right thugs of the EDL’. Trials were immediate and sentences draconian. I am still puzzled why and how so many people were persuaded to plead guilty.

Meanwhile no changes were brought against these two men who caused the fracas at the airport and assaulted three police officers (and others, as it turns out)  The Reform Party declared that if the Crown Prosecution Service did not bring a prosecution they would take out a private prosecution.  It was by now clear that England is governed by a two-tier legal system and policing.

The CPS were forced into action and the trial started today at the Crown Court in Liverpool. Note, not Manchester a city that has two very experienced Crown Court Centres but the next big city some 54 miles away.

Also their solicitor is Aamer Anwar a well-known Human Rights lawyer whose practice is in Glasgow Scotland, not England. Scots Law i a different system to that of England and Wales; it is based on the Napoleonic Code (itself based to Roman Law) not the English Common Law of the rest of the UK, Commonwealth and the USA. Previous cases include acting for the Stop the War Coalition, the family of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie and Jihadi bride Aqsa Mahmood. He’s not your normal criminal practitioner, in the English Crown Court.

Two brothers accused of attacking armed police in an angry confrontation at Manchester Airport used a ‘high level of violence’, jurors were told.

Violence erupted when they were confronted by police at the Terminal 2 arrivals pay station car park. They were called after one of the brothers, Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, allegedly headbutted a member of the public, Abdulkareem Hamzah Abbas Ismaeil, minutes earlier in Starbucks inside the terminal building after the brothers had picked up their mother.

Police body-cam footage showed one female officer, PC Lydia Ward, sobbing with her mouth filled with blood after she suffered a broken nose in the alleged attack at the pay station.

Opening the case for the Crown today at Liverpool Crown Court, Paul Greaney KC said the defendants used ‘a high level of violence’. The jurors are told that the defendants claim they were acting in self-defence ‘or in the defence of each other’.

Mr Greaney described in detail the violence which was captured on the footage. The arresting officers arrived ‘in full uniform’ and PC Marsden took hold of the arm of Mr Amaaz who was at the pay station to move him away from the machine and detain him while two other officers took hold of his other arm, said the KC.

Mr Amaad then ‘repeatedly punched’ PC Marsden who was ‘cornered and unable to move’.

Meanwhile Mr Amaaz ‘began throwing punches towards the two female officers’, said Mr Greaney.

Mr Amaaz was said to have punched PC Ward whose is seen crying while her nose is ‘streaming’ with blood, the court is told. The defendant had broken her nose, said the KC.

Mr Amaaz ten turned to PC Cook but she managed to ‘duck’ the first blow but another struck her head and she fell over a baggage trolley, the jurors were told.

Mr Amaaz then turned back to PC Marsden ‘attacking him from behind’ as the officer pointed his Taser at Mr Amaad, the court hears. The attack was said to have knocked PC Marsden into the seats and Mr Amaaz then grabbed him around his neck before a ‘flurry of punches to his head’, the court is told.

Mr Amaaz then dragged PC Marsden away from his brother before PC Cook fired his Taser stun gun at the defendant, said the KC.

Mr Greaney then turned to what appears to be a stamp aimed by PC Marsden at Mr Amaaz, as the latter was laying on the ground.

The KC said: “Those actions look rather shocking in the cold light of day, but we suggest they need to be judged in the context of the very serious level of threat posed by the defendants to an officer who was concerned that his firearm might be taken from him at an airport. In any event, those actions all occurred after the violence of the defendants. The position of the prosecution is that they are logically irrelevant to the lawfulness of the conduct of Mohammed Fahir Amaaz and Muhammed Amaad as charged in the indictment.”

The live blog has today’s evidence here.

Selecting a panel of 12 jurors before the start of the trial, Judge Neil Flewitt KC told them: “It’s highly likely this case will be reported in the media whether in the press or TV or the radio or elsewhere. It’s also highly likely to be the subject of comment on social media.

“Although I cannot stop you reading about this case in the media or on social media, it’s of the utmost importance you do no allow yourselves to be influenced by anything you may have heard or read about.”

Judge Flewitt urged the jurors not to discuss the case with anyone outside the jury panel as it is ‘your collective assessment of the evidence entered into court that matters’.

The trial is scheduled to last three to four weeks.