Nigel Farage is to mount a private prosecution against the youths involved in a brawl at Manchester Airport that led to protests about ‘police brutality’.
The Reform UK leader is expected to announce the move tomorrow to highlight what he regards as a ‘two-tier justice system’, in which Right-wing activists are singled out by the courts for harsher treatment.
The furore erupted in July after partial videos of the incident shared online showed an officer kicking 19-year-old Fahir Muhammed Amas during an attempted arrest of him and his brother Amaad.
Tensions were raised further when their lawyer Akhmed Yakoob claimed the fracas had been an ‘attempted assassination’, triggering anti-police protests in the brothers’ home town of Rochdale.
But dramatic CCTV footage then revealed the three police officers had been viciously attacked, leaving a WPC with a broken nose and another officer slumped on the floor just before the Fahir incident.
Four months later, with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) apparently no closer to announcing charges against the brothers, Mr Farage has hired two solicitors to bring a case against them.
A source close to Mr Farage said: ‘It is now November, and no charges have been laid – yet those on the Right of the arguments who said unpleasant things on social media and took to the streets found themselves in jail almost instantly. We have a two-tier justice system in this country’.
The Clacton MP spoke out in the summer after rioting in English towns and cities after the Southport stabbings that led to the death of three young girls, saying those involved had been dealt with more harshly than other protests.
The storm over the Manchester incident led to fears the officers involved could have to go into hiding as the protests grew – two were suspended over the outcry and it is understood they still are.
The CCTV footage shows Fahir punching a female police officer in the face, breaking her nose, before knocking down a second woman officer while his brother throws
a barrage of ‘full-blooded’ punches at an armed male officer, leaving him stunned and slumped on the floor. Fahir also punched the male officer and grabbed him by the neck in a ‘chokehold’, which he released only when a female officer Tasered him.
A well-informed source told The Mail on Sunday that after a ‘violent altercation’ at a Starbucks coffee shop within the airport, three officers tried to arrest Fahir as he used a car park ticket machine; he was shown resisting before Amaad throws a barrage of punches at the male police officer, who crumpled on to a row of metal seats.
Fahir was then shown lashing out, first punching one female officer in the side of the head and then smashing the second woman officer in the face, knocking her off her feet and leaving her sprawled on the floor.
The second female officer suffered a broken nose. Footage also showed Fahir throwing at least another four punches at the first female officer, who was knocked to her knees.
By this point the male officer had got back to his feet and was aiming his Taser at Amaad. Fahir, however, is shown charging into the back of the male officer, punching him in the head then grabbing him around the neck. It is claimed the male officer suffered a suspected broken jaw and may have been temporarily knocked out.
The fight ended only when the first female officer staggered back to her feet and fired her Taser at Fahir, which knocked him over.
It was at this point – as seen by millions in the mobile phone footage – that the male police officer kicks Fahir in the head and apparently stamps on him as he lies on the floor.
The CPS has the power to prevent a private prosecution by taking it over and discontinuing it – but such a move would be highly controversial in this case.