Manchester Airport suspect wanted to JOIN police says lawyer in extraordinary press conference as he sets out claims of racism tirade on flight

The solicitor representing Fahir Amaaz, his brother Muhammad Amaad and their mother Shameem Akhtar hit out at what he said had been a “deliberate attempt to smear the family and portray an incomplete version of events”.

He told those in attendance that the two brothers involved in the incident had never held a criminal record, had family members in the police, and that one of them had even applied to join the force himself.

Outlining what he said occurred prior to the confrontation with the police, Anwar claimed Akhtar had faced a “tirade of racial abuse” on her flight to Manchester after being repeatedly called a “p**i” repeatedly by a fellow passenger on board.

The 56-year-old was alleged to have been left scared that the male would become physical and assault her.

“She became increasingly frightened and intimidated. He was over six-foot tall and was over large build,” Anwar said. Throughout the duration of the flight, the male is alleged to have continued despite pleas from his wife to stop.

Once the flight ended and Akhtar went to pick up her luggage from the carousel, she claims that the man followed her and began to “repeatedly bump [his luggage] into her”.

Upon exiting arrivals, it was alleged she saw her two sons and broke down into tears as she relayed the events. She then spotted the man who had allegedly hurled racist remarks at her and, according to Anwar, her sons confronted him on the “abuse”.

Following the altercation, the family entered the airport car park, where the now viral incident involving the police occurred.

Anwar said: “Police officers, who were two females and one male, approached Fahir and then without identifying themselves, immediately grabbed Fahir by the wrist.”

He said that he appreciates that the footage shared by the Manchester Evening News is heavily pixelated, but the family wished to state that if watched closely, you can see that “Fahir is immediately grabbed by the wrist”.

He added: “The male officer proceeds to grab Fahir by the neck and it is alleged that he hits Fahir's head into the ticket machine, at which point the other son, Amaad, asked the police officer to move his hand from his neck - from Fahir's neck - as he was not resisting arrest.

“Ahmad and his mother Shamim were shocked at the unnecessary aggression and violence alleged violence shown from the start. There was no immediate attempt to speak to Fahir, to ask him to step aside, to caution him or to simply say ‘can we speak to you for a second?’"

Referring to CCTV footage of the incident, Anwar said: “At no point do you see on the video Fahir reaching for any officer's firearms as is later claimed in the immediate press release from the GMP, nor is he in fact doing anything other than lying motionless face down.

"It is at this point as the officer stands up, he proceeds to run and kick Fahir in the face. Mrs Akhtar then tried to pull her son's head away and the officer then attempted to stamp on his head as can be seen in the graphic video."

Discussing the family’s experience since the July 23 incident in Terminal 2, Anwar said: “The family have been subjected to horrific racist and Islamophobic abuse on social media, and there has been a campaign of disinformation in an attempt to justify alleged police violence.

“The deliberate attempt by some within Greater Manchester Police or so-called police sources to present a version of events to the media in the immediate aftermath and then to claim publicly that they have cooperated with the the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation is deeply unhelpful and can be seen as nothing more than a deliberate and cynical attempt to manipulate and mould a narrative of events and untruths.”

Anwar appealed for members of the community to exercise calm and not drain police resources during a time when riots have been ransacking the UK.

He said that the family has many serving police officers and believe that the actions of the police officers do not represent the majority of those in the force, praising the police as having “a difficult job, day in, day out”.

The police officer filmed stamping on Fahir’s head has since been suspended and has been placed under criminal investigation, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has said.

Regional Director Catherine Bates confirmed that the probe had moved from a misconduct investigation to a criminal one on July 26.

She said that she had met with “one of the men who was involved and his family members” and would be speaking to the other man as soon as possible.

Bates said investigators were continuing to gather evidence and had already secured a “significant amount of body worn video and CCTV footage”.

The IOPC said the officer had also been served with a disciplinary notice in regards to “potential gross misconduct for a number of alleged breaches of police professional standards including his use of force”.