A retrial has heard prosecutors dismiss as implausible the self-defence claims of two brothers accused of launching a violent assault on an armed police officer at Manchester Airport, with the jury told “you will readily conclude” the defendants acted unlawfully during the July 2024 Terminal Two fracas.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, and Muhammad Amaad, 26, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, deny assaulting PC Zachary Marsden causing actual bodily harm despite CCTV footage showing “repeated blows” delivered with “a high level of violence” as officers attempted arresting Amaaz in the parking payment area.
Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC told Manchester Crown Court Monday the case was “not complicated” with events captured on CCTV and body-worn cameras: “You will be able to see with your own eyes what happened. What occurred is plain to see beyond any sensible argument.”
Amaaz—already convicted at a previous trial of assaulting two female officers and a Qatari citizen in a Starbucks café minutes earlier—still “believes the jury was wrong” and maintains he acted lawfully throughout the incident, the court heard.
The violence erupted after the brothers met their mother arriving from Pakistan via Qatar, with “something happening” between her and Abdulkareem Ismaeil that made her unhappy, prompting Amaaz confronting him in the café and headbutting him before striking further blows.
When PC Marsden, PC Ellie Cook and unarmed PC Lydia Ward arrived at the pay station around 8.28pm to arrest Amaaz, prosecutors said violence “erupted quickly” with the younger brother delivering “no fewer than 12 blows (a kick, elbow strikes and punches)” over 30 seconds.
PC Ward suffered a broken nose from Amaaz’s punch—described as acting “in a cowardly manner”—whilst armed officer PC Cook faced “a flurry of blows” with Amaad delivering repeated punches to PC Marsden using significant force.
The jury viewed footage showing Amaaz wrestled to the floor after targeting PC Cook, followed by PC Marsden kicking the defendant’s face before bringing his foot down “in what looks like a stamping motion” toward his head.
Mr Greaney acknowledged the armed officer’s actions “look rather shocking in the cold light of day” but urged jurors judging them within context of “very serious level of threat” posed to an officer “concerned that his firearm might be taken from him at an international airport.”
“Those actions all occurred after the violence of the defendants. The position of the prosecution is that they are logically entirely irrelevant to the lawfulness of the conduct of Amaaz and Amaad,” the prosecutor stated.
Muhammad Amaad claims defending his brother whilst both maintain self-defence throughout, though the first trial jury convicted Amaaz of the female officers’ assaults whilst unable reaching verdicts on the PC Marsden charge.
