Former Hamas bodyguard guilty of UK knife attack

A suspected Hamas member, wanted in Germany over an alleged plot to murder Jewish people, has been found guilty of a knife attack on a bailiff outside his UK home.

Mohammed Alfatih, also known as Mohammed Naim, is reported to have acted as a bodyguard to a former leader of Hamas before being granted asylum in the UK in 2015 and British citizenship in 2020.

The 40-year-old was found guilty by majority verdict of unlawful wounding, possession of two knives and criminal damage. He was cleared of the more serious charge of wounding with intent.

Alfatih was under surveillance by a counter-terrorism unit when the incident involving the bailiff happened in Birmingham last year.

He could not be named during his trial due to reporting restrictions.

During the trial, footage was shown of Alfatih brandishing two large kitchen knives outside his home in the suburb of Kings Heath.

He told the court he chased the bailiff across the street to scare him away, after his wife was asked to settle her debts.

Her car had been clamped by the enforcement officer, who was involved in a struggle inside Alfatih's terraced home.

However, jurors were not told of Alfatih's alleged links to proscribed terrorist group Hamas, as described in a German extradition request, or his reported work as a bodyguard to the former leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh.

While detained for the attack on the bailiff in Birmingham, he was re-arrested after authorities in Germany said he had been part of an alleged plot to attack Israeli targets in Central Europe.

Alfatih, who was born in Germany, is expected to be extradited to the country after he has served his sentence in the UK, with his alleged connection to Hamas stated in the German extradition request.

During his evidence, he did not mention the group, but told the court he had been tortured for 25 days while detained in Egypt in 2010.

Video footage

The father-of-four, an IT worker, failed in a legal application to try to get the wounding charges thrown out on the grounds of prejudicial media coverage.

The coverage included details of allegations related to seven arrests made by German authorities, but Judge George Lubega ruled the reports did not pose a high risk of prejudice to Alfatih's trial.

During a two-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court the jury was shown video footage of Alfatih lashing out with a knife at the broken window of a van on 14 October last year.

Bailiff Kevin Bucknall was left with cuts to his head and required hospital treatment, but the defendant had pleaded not guilty on the grounds of self-defence.

Alfatih told jurors it happened a day after he learned one of his brothers had been killed in Gaza.

He also said while giving evidence that traumatic experiences in his past included being shot and injured on two different occasions.

"I just want to be as honest as I can," he told the jury.

"I don't think I was even in my full mind. I didn't intend anything other than him moving away.

"I wasn't anything more than terrified."

Defence barrister Kate O'Raghallaigh said Alfatih had a heightened perception of danger, triggered by fear and desperation he had previously experienced.

Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court deliberated for more than six hours over three days before convicting him.

Sentencing will take place at a later date.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "There can be no place in our society for those who engage in violence or seek to facilitate terrorist attacks against innocent people.

"Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation and we condemn those who choose to support its activities and further its aims."

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