Man accused of knifing pensioner ‘turned down for asylum in Germany’ – housemate
A Moroccan accused of knifing a pensioner to death in the street apparently in “revenge” for the Israel-Palestine conflict was turned down for asylum in Germany, his housemate told investigators.
Ahmed Alid, 45, attacked sleeping Christian convert Javed Nouri at their shared accommodation in Wharton Terrace, Hartlepool, days after the Hamas attacks last October, Teesside Crown Court has heard.
Mr Nouri, 31, managed to fight him off despite being stabbed six times, and Ahmed fled into the town centre where he fatally stabbed Terence Carney, 70, jurors have heard.
The prosecution has said he was to tell police he stabbed the two men “in revenge for what he believed to be the killing of children by Israel”.
Mr Nouri, via a farsi interpreter, told police he had moved into the Home Office-approved accommodation around three months before the attack.
He said he realised “this man was extreme in his religion” and was a strict Muslim.
Mr Nouri challenged him about why Alid came to the UK and not to a Muslim country if he did not like how people lived.
Mr Nouri told police: “He would tell me his family is in Germany and they did not give me asylum there – ‘that’s why I came here’.
“(He said) ‘I am waiting to get a decision for my asylum and to bring them over here’.
“I responded that I pray for you so you can bring your family here because it is difficult to be away from your family.”
Mr Nouri said Alid challenged the housemates over beer that had been left in the fridge, saying it should not be in the house.
He told police: “I realised he was an extreme Muslim, in his religion alcohol consumption is not good.”
Mr Nouri said he saw Alid had started to routinely carry a knife and was scaring the other housemates.
He went to the housing bosses and told them of his concerns about Alid, particularly given that Mr Nouri had “changed his religion”.
Mr Nouri said he also contacted the Home Office with his worries about Alid.
He told detectives: “I told them that we are not safe here… He could attack us at any moment.”
Mr Nouri said he told a friend from church about what was happening, and twice told police about what Alid was doing.
The asylum seeker told the female friend: “This guy is very dangerous, he is a terrorist, he is not normal.”
Housing bosses warned Alid he would lose his accommodation if his behaviour continued, Mr Nouri said. Mr Nouri said he saw Alid one night in the shared kitchen watching coverage of the Hamas attacks on his phone.
“He was looking at the Hamas and Israel war and the fact that Hamas was killing Israelis and they are cutting children’s heads off and killing wives and shooting them,” Mr Nouri said.
“He was sitting on the kitchen chair and checking the news on his mobile phone.
“He was laughing and every time they would kill somebody he would praise God.”
Mr Nouri spoke to a housemate and asked: “How could somebody be happy with seeing humans getting killed?”
He told police: “I was very upset from that night and I have seen something terrible and frightening in his eyes.”
Mr Nouri said Alid broke into his bedroom in the early hours of October 15 and immediately stabbed him near his heart and was shouting “Allahu Akbar” repeatedly.
There followed a long struggle in which Mr Nouri described being repeatedly stabbed as he fought off his attacker.
He told detectives: “It was a nightmare, I was sleepy, I did not know what was going on, I was frightened, it was dark and he kept shouting Allahu Akbar.”
Mr Nouri, who told detectives he was from Persia, said he converted to Christianity around two years ago and Alid would have been aware of that, given that Mr Nouri went to church, drank alcohol and did not pray at home.
Asked to describe Alid, he said: “He was a crazy man, you didn’t need to have a sixth sense of knowing much.
“He had a long beard and he would shave his moustache.”
Alid denies murdering Mr Carney, attempted murder and two counts of assaulting detectives after he was arrested.
The trial continues.
