The two brothers at the centre of one of the most contentious policing controversies in recent British history will face no further prosecution over allegations they assaulted an armed officer at Manchester Airport, after the Crown Prosecution Service decided against seeking a third trial — while the officer who kicked one of them in the face remains under criminal investigation.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, and Muhammad Amaad, 26, both of Rochdale, were formally found not guilty at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday of assaulting PC Zachary Marsden, after prosecutors told a judge it would not be lawful to pursue a third jury given that two had already failed to reach verdicts on the charge. Amaad grinned and was embraced by supporters as he left court. His younger brother attended via video link and was told by Judge Flewitt that he would face an immediate custodial sentence at a hearing next month — having already been convicted of causing actual bodily harm to PC Lydia Ward and assaulting PC Ellie Cook during the same incident.
Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC told the court that the decision had been taken “at the highest level” within the CPS and that, while the case was serious and had attracted significant public attention, it did not meet the legal threshold of “extreme gravity” required to justify the exceptional step of a third retrial. He formally offered no evidence on the assault charges relating to PC Marsden, and not guilty verdicts were entered against both brothers. The Crown Prosecution Service said the law was “clear” that any further retrial “would be highly exceptional” and that it was not in the public interest to proceed.
The case began on 23 July 2024 when Amaaz headbutted a Kuwaiti holidaymaker at a Starbucks in Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 arrivals area. When PC Marsden and two female colleagues caught up with him at a pay station shortly afterwards, bodycam and CCTV footage showed what followed: Amaaz and his brother subjected the officers to a violent assault in which PC Ward’s nose was broken, PC Cook was also attacked, and PC Marsden — whose glasses were knocked off almost immediately — said he feared Amaad was attempting to grab his loaded Glock pistol. He fired his Taser at Amaad and PC Cook subsequently Tasered Amaaz, who fell to the floor — at which point PC Marsden kicked him in the face.
It was footage of that kick, captured on bystanders’ phones and shared online before the full CCTV context emerged, that ignited the original firestorm. Protests were held outside Rochdale police station, hundreds staged a sit-in outside Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s offices, and Baroness Shaista Gohir, chief executive of the Muslim Women’s Network UK, drew comparisons to the death of George Floyd. It took 150 days for prosecutors to announce that PC Marsden would face no charges, after which the brothers were themselves charged with assaulting all three officers.
That decision left PC Marsden’s own conduct still unresolved. He remains under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which confirmed on Thursday that its probe was “at an advanced stage” but said new evidence brought to its attention in October 2025 had opened additional lines of inquiry that needed to be explored before final decisions could be made. A second male GMP officer who confronted bystanders filming the brawl also remains under criminal investigation, as does the officer believed to have leaked the CCTV footage to the Manchester Evening News.
At both trials, PC Marsden had maintained he kicked Amaaz to stun him without realising the teenager had already been Tasered, and denied acting out of anger or revenge. “I joined this job to protect life, not take it away,” he told the court. “I’ll exhaust every other option possible before producing a lethal weapon.” He was described by the prosecution as “terrified” during the assault, unable to see without his glasses and genuinely fearing that Amaad was attempting to seize his weapon.
The defence painted a markedly different picture throughout. Imran Khan KC, representing Amaad — and well known for his decades-long work representing the family of Stephen Lawrence — described PC Marsden’s attitude as “I can do whatever the hell I want because I am a police officer with a gun.” Chloe Gardner, also representing Amaad, argued the kick could have been fatal and that her client had been entitled to defend his brother.
GMP Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson, who had previously praised his officers for putting themselves in “harm’s way” to tackle “outrageous criminal behaviour,” said on Thursday that the force was disappointed but respected the outcome. “Assaults on police officers are sadly all too common — 35 of my officers are assaulted every week across Greater Manchester — and such incidents can never be justified,” he said.
The case also revealed that Amaad had twice applied unsuccessfully to join Greater Manchester Police, including for a 999 dispatch role just three months before the airport incident. Six members of the brothers’ wider family are current or former GMP officers. Amaaz was studying at Manchester Metropolitan University at the time and has been on remand since his conviction for the assaults on the female officers, awaiting the sentencing hearing now scheduled for next month.
