The Metropolitan Police has agreed pay £60,000 for violent attacks of police officers on a British Muslim. The high court had decided the officers were guilty of punching, kicking and throttling Babar Ahmad and of mocking his Islamic faith. Ahmad had been arrested in 2003 and again in 2004 and is accused of raising funds for terrorism. So far, the accusations have not been proven.
The case took five years to reach a court decision. It had earlier been investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and its predecessor, the Police Complaints Authority, who found the charges were unsubstantiated. It appears that the officers involved have been accused of 77 other cases in which they assaulted African-British and Asian men, but documented evidence on these allegations was “lost” before they could be treated in court. Meanwhile, Babar Ahmad is awaiting decision on the charges against him and whether or not he could be extradited to the US, who had requested his 2004 arrest.
