The lawyer of the family at the centre of the Manchester Airport row has today described the incident as an ‘attempted joint enterprise assassination’ by the police.
Hundreds of protesters blocked traffic and held up Black Lives Matter placards last night after footage of a Greater Manchester Police firearms officer kicking a teenager in the head ‘like a football’ sparked allegations of gratuitous violence.
Demonstrators who gathered outside Mayor Andy Burnham‘s office claimed the shocking videos showed the force was racist and called for it to be ‘defunded’.
The rally came as the officer filmed kicking a 19-year-old in the head then stamping on him in a violent arrest on Tuesday was suspended after further clips emerged.
This morning, the teenager’s controversial solicitor Akhmed Yakoob described the incident as an ‘attempted assassination, the joint enterprise assassination of the young boys by the police officers’.
Speaking to LBC radio, Mr Yakoob added: ‘That is concerning because if police officers who are meant to protect us are going around trying to kill people. I mean, how are the public going to feel safe?’
The family’s lawyer Akhmed Yakoob speaks outside Rochdale Police Station yesterday
Lawyer Akhmed Yakoob (centre) with Fahir and Amaad Khan following the airport incident
Demonstrators throw eggs at Rochdale Police Station last night as protests continue
Stains from the egg throwing were left on the windows of Rochdale Police Station last night
Questioned by presenter Nick Ferrari over his use of the word ‘assassination’, Mr Yakoob said: ‘Kill, yeah. They were threatened to kill, one of the boys were threatened to get killed by a police officer.’
‘TikTok lawyer’ with Lamborghini lifestyle
The solicitor representing the brothers at the centre of the Manchester Airport storm has been called ‘the TikTok lawyer’ because of the videos of his millionaire lifestyle which he shares with his 200,000 followers.
Akhmed Yakoob, 36, boasts of having a £1million car collection that includes a Lamborghini with personalised number plates and is regularly seen wearing Prada trainers, a glittering diamond watch and gold-rimmed sunglasses.
The Birmingham-based father-of-four has attracted controversy, including a row over a ‘deep-fake’ video which led to a viral hate campaign against an innocent teacher.
Mr Yakoob, a director at Maurice Andrews Solicitors, shared the clip while running as an independent candidate in the West Midlands mayoral election on a pro-Gaza ticket in May. It used subtitles to suggest the woman had used a racial slur while canvassing for Labour.
Labour said it employed a digital forensics company which found evidence that the video had been manipulated. West Midlands Police concluded no offensive words had been uttered. Mr Yakoob also posted the teacher’s name and the name of her school. Others posted her phone number and email address.
The teacher, who is in her 20s, said she had faced death threats amid a nightmare of online abuse.
Mr Yakoob later said he had ‘deleted the post from all my social media’ and ‘would like to see the findings’ of the Labour Party and the police.
He came third in the mayoral poll, later coming within 3,500 votes of unseating Labour’s Shabana Mahmood in Birmingham’s Ladywood constituency in the general election.
Earlier this year he was criticised for comments that it was ‘natural for men to be attracted to females, so keep our queens at home’.
He said that he was ‘mortified’ by the backlash.
MailOnline has contacted Greater Manchester Police for comment on Mr Yakoob’s claim.
Mr Yakoob also posted a video on Instagram, saying that he would be meeting the Independent Office for Police Conduct today, adding that there would be ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ and he was ‘confident that justice will prevail’.
Mr Yakoob – who is nicknamed the TikTok lawyer and earlier this year unsuccessfully stood to be the mayor of the West Midlands on a pro-Gaza platform – previously claimed that his client was ‘fighting for his life’ in hospital.
The lawyer said a CT scan had revealed that Fahir Muhammed Amas had a ‘cyst on the brain’. However, he admitted he did not know whether it was linked to his violent arrest.
And today, newly-elected Rochdale Labour MP Paul Waugh confirmed that while the family members had been taken to hospital, they were both now at home.
Up to 400 protesters staged a sit-in in the centre of Manchester last night, causing severe disruption to the city’s tram network.
Many held BLM banners with one speaker saying the incident was ‘another reason’ why the group wanted to defund Greater Manchester Police.
Meanwhile Mr Waugh revealed he had met the family at their home yesterday and said it was ‘clear from talking to them that they are traumatised’.
He told BBC Breakfast: ‘Lots of people saw that video clip and were really distressed by it, the police themselves said it was a distressing clip. But just imagine if that was your brother, that was your son in that video – and you can imagine just how distraught they are.’
Mr Waugh added that the family had two priorities – the first being the ‘health and wellbeing of their family immediately, healing, getting better’; and the second being ‘the need for justice not just to be done but seen to be done’.
He said the family were also ‘really heartened by the early engagement’ of the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Mr Waugh continued: ‘The family, the other strong message they wanted me to give people, is they have no political agenda whatsoever.
‘They’re not interested in political violence, they’re not going to attend any of these protests, and they wanted me to issue an appeal for calm among the community, all different types of communities in Rochdale.
‘We’ve had a history of unfortunate division within our town and we do not want to go back to those days.
‘And they wanted through me to make that absolutely clear. Their agenda is simply to find justice after this incident. And there’s no political agenda whatsoever.
‘More importantly, they’re acutely aware that there are extremists of all sides who are keen to hijack this event and use it for their own ends. The family are not interested in that at all.’
Mr Waugh said the family members had been taken to hospital, with one them taken for another scan – but they were now at home.
He added: ‘I’m hoping that they’re on the mend, but obviously the after-effects of an incident like this are difficult to assess immediately at the time.’
Demonstrators throw eggs at Rochdale Police Station last night as protests continue
Stains from the egg throwing were left on the windows of Rochdale Police Station last night
Mr Waugh added that he met with the Greater Manchester Police assistant chief constable yesterday to ‘look at some of the footage and to get some of the full facts’.
He continued: ‘It’s clear that this is a complex, fast-moving incident but obviously there is no justification whatsoever for what we’ve seen and I think the police have made that clear, that’s why this officer has been suspended. But we’ve got to let the independent process follow its due course.’
Mr Waugh added: ‘There’s also things that happened off camera which there need to be witness statements gathered for. It’s really important that the full evidence is seen, because that’s only fair to all the parties involved.’
One family friend from Rochdale said she had spoken to the family and ‘they could not stop crying’, reported the Manchester Evening News.
She said: ‘They are lovely boys that do charity work and community work and fairs with kids. They are people you would trust with your whole heart. That’s the kind of lads they are, they’re not criminals.’
Some protesters built a makeshift barricade outside Rochdale Police Station last night
Police officers are seen clearing the entrance to Rochdale Police Station last night
Protesters used metal fencing to block the entrance to Rochdale Police Station yesterday
On Fahir, she said: ‘He’s only 19, he’s just a baby. He’s not in a good way and nobody deserves that. After watching it I haven’t slept, it just kept going round and round in my head as it would for any mother. His mum is traumatised. They are asking for everyone to pray.’
Muhammad Aziz, who referred to himself as Fahir’s uncle, told the crowd: ‘What’s happened to one of my nephews is absolutely shocking, it is absolutely disgusting. A lad who went to pick up his mum who had come back from holiday was abused brutally.’
During the protest last night, one banner read: ‘Serve and protect means GMP will stamp on heads.’ Chants of ‘No justice, no peace, no racist police’ were shouted by the crowd.
Among the protesters was Sammy Azam, 58, from Nottingham, who described the actions of the officer as ‘deplorable’ and ‘unacceptable’.
Shaiiye Khan, 39, from Manchester, claimed: ‘If you give the police too much power they will just abuse it. They’ve been doing it for years.’
However, there were calls for caution about condemning the officer at the centre of the storm before the full facts of exactly what led up to the furious confrontation have been revealed.
The incident took place at Terminal 2 on Tuesday evening after Fahir and his brother Amaad, 25, met their 56-year-old mother who had just flown in from Pakistan.
Chants of ‘We want them sacked’ were heard during a huge protest in Manchester last night
Demonstrators hold Union Flags with the words ‘No Justice No Peace’ in Manchester last night
She told them there had been ‘an issue on the flight’ and ‘pointed somebody out and then there was an altercation in the arrivals hall’, Mr Burnham told BBC Radio 4’s World At One.
Police then used cameras to follow the suspects as they left for the car park, with the brothers arrested close to the pay stations.
Footage now seen hundreds of thousands of times around the world then shows Fahir lying on the ground as a male officer armed with a Taser appears to kick his face violently before stamping on him.
As his mother tries to protect him, Amaad is pulled from the bench where he was sitting and apparently kicked and hit by the same officer.
Onlookers can be heard shouting ‘stop kicking people’ and ‘you’re on camera’ before another group is confronted by police.
Amar Rafiq, who filmed one of the clips, said he was ‘gobsmacked’ by what he witnessed.
‘Everyone was worried about themselves, they started panicking and rushing away, they feared they would be attacked,’ he told the Mail.
A Stand Up To Racism demonstration in Manchester takes place yesterday evening
Demonstrators including campaign group Stand Up To Racism in Manchester last night
But Mr Burnham stressed that ‘there had already been a serious incident’ before the attempted arrests ‘escalated’, adding that it was a situation which people ‘don’t see in the clip’.
There were issues ‘on both sides’, he added.
A total of four men were arrested on suspicion of affray and assaulting an emergency worker before being released on bail.
After the clip went viral, Greater Manchester Police said one of the suspects had ‘violently assaulted’ officers, leaving a woman officer with a broken nose.
There was a ‘clear risk’ that the officers’ firearms might be taken from them, the force added, with all three needing hospital treatment.
But, after further videos of the fracas from multiple angles emerged yesterday, the un-named officer was suspended from duty.
Meanwhile, police watchdog the IOPC launched an investigation.
Marchers held up signs which said ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Fight Police Racism’ last night
An activist holds a placard which reads: ‘Service and protect means GMP will stamp on heads’
Protesters march in the streets of Manchester yesterday after a similar protest in Rochdale
After the brothers had been treated in hospital, they went to their local police station in Rochdale on Wednesday evening to make a complaint.
However, the public counter was closed, with hundreds of supporters instead gathering outside in another protest.
Speakers accused the police of racism and chanted ‘GMP, shame on you’, ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest) and ‘f*** the police’.
A local imam was seen trying to calm tensions within the crowd, telling them ‘not to take the law into your own hands’.
At the family’s £385,000 detached house yesterday, Amaad told the Mail: ‘My brother is in a bad way. He is very shaken up.’
Describing the incident as ‘police brutality’, solicitor Mr Yakoob said the pair’s older brother was himself a serving officer with the Greater Manchester force.
A police liaison officer holds her hand up to a tram driver as protesters block the tramway
Demonstrators hold a sit-in protest to block the road and tramway in Manchester
One person holds up a sign reading: ‘This could have been me or you! Defund the racist police’
He was now ‘afraid to go to work’ because he was now ‘fearing for his own safety’, he added.
Mr Yakoob said the whole family were ‘traumatised’. He added: ‘Right now, the main concern for us is that the family receive justice and this no longer happens again.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he understood the concern the public ‘rightly have’ over the footage.
His official spokesman said: ‘The public rightly expect a high standard of conduct from our police and it is right that the police have reported themselves to the IOPC.’
The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she shared the ‘deep concern’ and ‘widespread distress’ over the video.
Former Victims’ Commissioner Dame Vera Baird described the footage as shocking, accusing the officer of ‘kicking the man’s head like a football’.
Footage of the attack – which also appeared to show Fahir and brother Amaad’s mother being shoved by officers – went viral online
Footage filmed by a witness showed a male officer stamping on one of the men’s heads – since identified as Fahir
A second man was also seen being detained in the video – after being ordered off a chair, he appeared to be kicked and hit by the same officer. He has since been named as Amaad
She told BBC Radio 5 Live that the officer appeared to have ‘gratuitously stamped on the head’.
She added: ‘I don’t know anybody who behaves in that way and it is pretty shocking to find that a firearms officer does because it smacks of being out of control.
‘Whatever has gone on before, there really can be very little excuse for this conduct.’
Mr Burnham described the video as ‘very disturbing’ but called for calm.
He urged the public not to rush to judgement on the incident, telling Radio Manchester that it was ‘more complicated’ that it had been portrayed.
Yesterday, MP Mr Waugh said: ‘Our armed police face a very difficult job every day, and will themselves expect the highest standards of conduct from their officers.’
Several Tasers appeared to have been activated during the incident on Tuesday
Additional footage shows the moment police arrest two more men after the incident in which a detainee had his head kicked. Here a police officer uses incapacitant spray on one of the men
Mr Waugh last night added that he has spoken to the relatives involved in the incident ‘and it is clear they are deeply traumatised by what happened’.
‘This is a hard working Rochdale family, some of whose members are police officers themselves and are therefore particularly shocked at what they have witnessed,’ he said.
‘The family also want me to make it crystal clear that they have no political agenda, do not condone political violence and do not want to take part in any protests.’
Mr Waugh added: ‘They wanted me to appeal for calm and I hope that appeal is heeded. There is a vital need not to let extremists of any kind hijack these events for their own ends.’
Reform MP Lee Anderson posted on social media site X that the ‘vast majority of decent Brits would applaud this type of policing’.
Mr Anderson also told the BBC’s Politics Live: ‘The message I’m getting loud and clear from my constituents is that they are fed up with seeing police dancing around rainbows, and being nice to people and running off from rioters.
The officer is then joined by a colleague who grabs one of the men in a headlock in the footage
The man is then wrestled to ground before being put in handcuffs and dragged out of the building
In one piece of footage, taken by one of the men who was arrested, a police officer can be seen pointing a taser at a group of men
‘They want the police to do their job. And I think these police yesterday should be commended. In fact, I would give them a medal.’
Fellow Reform MP Richard Tice told TalkTV the video was ‘reassuring’ rather than ‘distressing’.
And Greater Manchester Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, said it was supporting the suspended officer and that ‘everyone has the right to a fair hearing where all sides of the story are told and context provided’.
A spokesman expressed gratitude for public support for their ‘hard-working colleagues doing a difficult and dangerous job’.
Both brothers are known in Rochdale for their charity fundraising efforts during the festival of Eid and have been described as ‘devout’ and ‘hard-working’.
Yesterday GMP said an officer had been suspended from ‘all duties’ following a ‘thorough review of further information that has become available’.
Catherine Bates, the regional director of the IOPC, promised that there would be a ‘robust’ investigation.
‘It is vitally important we investigate all of the circumstances surrounding the incident,’ she added.
