Policeman in court over officer kidnap plot claim

A police officer has appeared in court charged in connection with a national security alert sparked by a "false and malicious" claim of a kidnap plot.

Pc Amar Tasaddiq Hussain, 29, was charged last month with two offences of conspiracy to commit misconduct after an inquiry by his own force.

West Midlands Police also charged Hussain with two counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after an investigation by its anti-corruption unit.

The Birmingham-based officer, who has been suspended from duty, is alleged to have committed the offences between June and December last year.

Two other men, 25-year-old student Adil Bashir and Muhammad Ali Sheikh, 30, appeared at Cannock Magistrates' Court alongside Hussain, facing the same charges.

Hussain, from Yardley, Birmingham, Bashir, from Small Heath, Birmingham, and Sheikh, a self-employed tutor from nearby Bordesley Green, were granted bail to appear at Stafford Crown Court on October 30.

The West Midlands force took action to protect its staff in December last year after receiving information stating that an officer was set to be kidnapped.

A subsequent investigation revealed the information to be false, the force said, and led to a 31-year-old man being deported.