Suspected Hamas terrorist handed British citizenship convicted of knife attack on bailiff over wife’s parking fines

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

He was cleared of wounding with intent, but also convicted of two counts of unlawful possession of a knife.

Alfatih, whose wife had racked up a debt of more than £2,250 linked to unpaid parking fines, could not be identified in media reports during his trial for attacking the enforcement officer.

Prior to the trial, a judge extended reporting restrictions after media reports that a suspect named only as “Mr X” had secured asylum in the UK and was then alleged to have been involved in planning for atrocities timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

The reports also claimed “Mr X” served in the personal security team of Ismail Haniyeh, who was then the leader of Hamas in Gaza, and had pre-recorded a video in which he appeared masked and armed in front of a Hamas flag.

Before his trial, IT worker Alfatih 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.

German prosecutors charged seven suspected Hamas members in September over an alleged plot to target Jews or Israelis in Germany or Austria around the second anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel.

They alleged that “Mohammed A” played a prominent role in transporting and storing weapons but was being prosecuted separately after UK authorities arrested him in London and noted he has not yet been returned to Germany.

German authorities also said he is connected to Hamas’s leadership and is said to have produced a video ahead of time, taking responsibility for the attack on the group’s behalf.

Reporting restrictions preventing the father-of-four from being named ended on Friday after he was also found guilty of causing criminal damage to the bailiff’s van by smashing its driver’s side window with a half-brick.

A two-week trial was shown video footage of Alfatih lashing out with a knife at the broken window of the van on October 14 last year, leaving bailiff Kevin Bucknall with a deep cut to the back of his head.

The victim, who was left with blood pouring down his neck and back, could not tell the court whether the wound was caused by a knife or broken glass, and Alfatih pleaded not guilty on the grounds of self-defence using reasonable force.

The incident left the bailiff, who was forced to reverse out a one-way street, requiring hospital treatment.

Following the attack shortly before 11am, Alfatih – who had been bailed by anti-terror officers ten days earlier – walked calmly back into his home and phoned police to claim that he had been assaulted.

Alfatih – who was accepted in court to be of previous good character – 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.

Alfatih told jurors he had gone to his kitchen to arm himself with knives – a day after learning that one of his brothers had been killed in Gaza – because of traumatic experiences in his past, including being shot and injured aged 16 and again in his early 20s.

A consultant forensic psychiatrist told the trial during expert evidence that Alfatih appeared to be “a pleasant person” who was calm and co-operative and, in his opinion, has post-traumatic stress disorder.

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

Addressing the incident involving the bailiff, Alfatih told the jury: “I just want to be as honest as I can.

“The only thing I can imagine is that something more serious is coming.

“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.”

In her closing speech to the jury, defence barrister Kate O’Raghallaigh said the shooting in which the defendant was injured aged 16 had also killed one of his brothers.

She described Alfatih as “a man who was then detained by the Egyptian regime” before being tortured and electrocuted.

Alfatih came to the UK in 2014 and became a citizen in 2020, said O’Raghallaigh, while members of his family – “the ones who are still alive” – were still in Gaza.

“This is a man who has experienced violence and loss,” the defence lawyer told jurors. “Warzones have all sorts of casualties – you may find that Mr Alfatih is one of them.”

Alfatih had a heightened perception of danger, triggered by fear and desperation he had previously experienced, she asserted, adding of the defendant: “If someone believes that they are about to be attacked, they are entitled to defend themselves so long as they use reasonable force.

“Everything he did at that (van) window was because he genuinely believed he was in danger.”

Breaking the window was no more than was necessary in the circumstances as Alfatih perceived them to be, O’Raghallaigh argued.

In his evidence, Mr Bucknall said he believed Alfatih paused after seeing blood, giving him the opportunity to drive away and seek help at a nearby GPs’ surgery, where they advised hospital treatment.

The victim added: “I was basically trying to get him out of the van.

“I was trying to kick out. I could feel something warm running down the back of my head.”