A thug teenager put a police officer in a chokehold and smashed his face in during an interview at the station, a courts has heard.
Muhammad Zakir Arif, 18, was being questioned by a male police officer on suspicion of being involved in terrorism offences. The Architecture student from Bury, Manchester, had been arrested the same date on February 6 after he was stopped and found to be carrying a Zombie-style knife, as well as a machete in a rucksack.
Joe Allman was the working prosecutor at Manchester Crown Court and revealed the teen made comments associated with radical Islam during his arrest and at the subsequent interview. He was said to put up a “significant struggle” when arrested as he kicked out at officers, reports the Mirror.
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The court heard Arif ranted at officers: “I would rather die than waste my life in here. I only had those in my bag because I like weapons, I wasn’t going to do anything. Do you want to know why you’ll all be getting bombed? It’s like kicking a rabid dog with you bombing Iraq. After a while, the dog will bite back and that bite will be your bomb.”
(Image: Getty Images)
The following day, Arif was interviewed by counter-terrorism officers. He said “I just want to say say one thing…” but then suddenly jumped from his chair, and shouted “Dawlat al Islam baqiyah”, which translates as “the Islamic State is remaining”, before repeatedly punching the male detective in the head and body, the court was told.
He then managed to place the detective into a headlock and squeeze his neck before other officers rushed to help their colleague, who was later sent home to recover from pain to his neck and shoulders. Arif also refused to give police the access codes to two recovered iPhones, which had been requested on grounds of national security, claiming there were uncovered images of his wife on the devices. But the Crown noted he was not in fact married.
Arif was not charged with any terrorism offences. He was on bail at the time of his arrest after being convicted months earlier of two robberies and an attempted robbery in January 2023. One of the robberies against a 17-year-old boy was committed at knifepoint and filmed on a mobile phone by an associate, the court was told.
In July, the teen pleaded guilty to assaulting the detective causing actual bodily harm and intentionally strangling him. He also admitted two counts of possessing a bladed article in a public place and two counts of failing to comply with a statutory notice issued under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) 2000.
On Monday he was sentenced to two and a half years custody at a young offender institution for the knifepoint robbery which Judge Patrick Field KC described as an “appalling and deplorable incident” in which he chased his victim and made him beg for forgiveness.
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