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Woman who called Grenfell fire 'Jewish sacrifice' jailed for 11 months

Volunteer found guilty of stirring up racial hatred in posts on Facebook

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A woman who described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “Jewish sacrifice” has been jailed for 11 months.

Tahra Ahmed, 51 was sentenced on Friday after being tried at the Old Bailey.

She had reportedly worked as a volunteer with surviving victims of the fire.

Ahmed, of Tottenham, north London, was found guilty on two counts of stirring up racial hatred relating to posts she made on Facebook.

One was posted just four days after the fire in the west London residential tower which killed 72 people on 14 June 2017.

In it, she wrote: "Watch the footage of people trapped in the inferno with flames behind them. They were burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice.”

She also claimed that 9/11 was a “Mossad job”.

In another post, Ahmed had written: “Jews have always been the ones behind ritual torture, crucifixion and murder of children, especially young boys, as a way of atoning for their sins in order to be allowed back into Palestine.”

Prosecution barrister Hugh French described the posts as “virulently anti-Semitic”, adding they “significantly crossed the line as to what is acceptable in a liberal democracy”.

He said: ”Looking at the language of the posts, the crude racial stereotyping and the insulting tone, the Crown say that you can infer that she posted them intending to stir up racial hatred and that racial hatred was likely to be stirred up."

Ms Ahmed had denied wrongdoing and claimed her comments were political rather than anti-Semitic.

Police had investigated her comments after a story in the Times newspaper in 2017.

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