Officer 'involved in 999 call claiming radical Muslim would kidnap colleague'

Updated

A serving police officer was involved in a "false and malicious" 999 call claiming a colleague would be kidnapped by a radical Muslim who had links to Islamic State, a court heard.

Pc Amar Tasaddiq Hussain, 29, is alleged to have been part of a group who sparked a security alert when a call was made to West Midlands Police claiming a man referred to as "Irfan the terrorist" wanted to kidnap a Muslim police officer.

The officer denies two counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice alongside two other men, 26-year-old Adil Bashir, and Muhammad Ali Sheikh, 31 who also deny the charges.

Opening the trial at Stafford Crown Court, prosecutor Simon Davis said West Midlands Police put "unprecedented measures" in place following the call in the afternoon of December 8 2014.

All police staff were forced to report they had got home safely, which Mr Davis likened to a roll call at a school.

He told the jury: "The police listened to that call. They took it extremely seriously. People going out to Syria to fight. People coming back from Syria.

"They saw the content of the call as a credible threat to the security and safety of a police officer who may be kidnapped that evening - they had six hours to put procedures in place to minimise the threat and maximise the security and safety of all police staff."

The court was played the 999 call in which the male claimed he was being asked by Irfan, who supposedly had recently returned from Syria, to drive a car with two others to kidnap a police officer.

The opening will continue this afternoon and the trial is expected to last two weeks.

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