Talaat Gondal , Daily Dawn, Dawn TV Report
Manchester: A Pakistani student has been found guilty of attacking two police officers at Manchester Airport.
Videos of the incident went viral on social media, in which police officers could be seen kicking and knocking Amaz to the ground after targeting him with a Taser gun. In another video, Amaz’s brother Muhammad Amad was seen telling the police that we are ordinary citizens, we did nothing.
The court was told that the police suspected that Amaz had attacked a citizen. When the police officers tried to arrest Amaz near the ticket machine in the parking lot, there was resistance and a clash broke out. Faher Amaz told the court that he was afraid that the police would kill him, so he reacted in self-defense.
The court also found Faher Amaz guilty of attacking PC Lydia and PC Cook and assaulting a citizen, Abdul Karim Ismail. However, the jury was inconclusive on the charge of assaulting PC Zachary Marsden. The prosecution intends to retry the charges.
According to the court, PC Marsden kicked Amaz in the face during his arrest. PC Marsden said that his aim was to ‘stun’ Amaz as he was trying to get up.
Interestingly, in the video of the incident, it can be seen that at one point, police officer Marsden knocked Amaz to the ground and tripped him, which later went viral. This aspect raised questions about the conduct of the police on social media.
The defence lawyer says that the police used unlawful force and grabbed Amaz from behind without revealing their identity. The viral videos also showed the police officers’ behavior as violent, which was protested by the local community.
The court has ordered Fahr Amaz to be detained, and his sentence is expected to be announced on Wednesday, where it will also be decided whether he can be granted interim bail or not.
Manchester Police say they are facing 35 attacks on their officers every week and are working in difficult conditions. Senior police officers have pledged their full support for their officers.
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