LONDON: A cafe owner in the UK has said police attempted to recruit him as a mole in Palestine Action, The Guardian reported on Saturday.
Shams Sadiq, the owner of two cafes in Manchester, said he was offered financial incentives and amnesty over low-level offenses if he spied on the pro-Palestine group.
The offer was made when he traveled to collect electronic devices that police had confiscated during his arrest last year, Sadiq said.
He was arrested in connection with alleged offenses relating to Palestine Action, a proscribed terrorist group.
At Ashton-under-Lyne police station on May 15, two police officers, who Sadiq believes were from Operation Wildflower — a Manchester police plan to address concerns over activism — approached him and requested to speak “man to man.”
The 51-year-old was informed that his devices had been checked and police were aware of his “full involvement” with Palestine Action, he said. However, according to Sadiq, he was then told that no charges would be made relating to his arrest.
“They said to me: ‘We need your help. Look, there’s benefits in helping us,’” he told The Guardian.
“I’m like: ‘What kind of benefits? Financial benefits? Are you going to pay my taxes?’ They said: ‘Oh, we can help with things like that.’
“The other guy said to me: ‘Oh, there’s other benefits, too.’ They said: ‘We’re not saying you can go out and commit a serious crime, but we can turn a blind eye to certain things.’”
The cafe owner asked the two officers if they had the ability to get rid of his speeding tickets and claims they answered: “We don’t care about speeding.”
Sadiq added: “They also said I’m quite respected in my community, so maybe they think I would help them find Muslims in the mosque with extreme views.”
In a separate incident, Sadiq said that four days before the offer, he was questioned at Manchester airport after returning from holiday in Morocco. Under schedule seven of the Terrorism Act, he was held for more than three hours but not arrested. Two officers at the airport questioned him about Palestine Action, Iran and his financial situation, including his mortgage, The Guardian reported.
Sadiq was also asked about his theoretical reaction if a worshiper next to him at the mosque held extreme views.
His electronic devices were also taken away.
He was then told to meet the same officers at Starbucks in terminal two three days later, leading to a meeting in which they returned his devices and were “really nice and apologetic.”
The cafe owner is vocally pro-Palestinian. He has attended rallies and has printed stickers for Palestinian groups and cultural exhibitions. Miniature Israeli flags were places on the door of one his cafes last year in apparent retribution for his support for Palestine, Manchester Evening News reported.
Sadiq said he was going public with the news of the police recruitment offer to ensure his safety. His neighbors stopped talking to him after his arrest last year, he said, adding: “I feel like I need protection from the police rather than anything else. It’s scary that I’ve got this marker on my passport for doing nothing. If they’ve got something on me, then charge me.”
Simon Pook, of Robert Lizar Solicitors, said he was making formal representations to Greater Manchester Police on Sadiq’s behalf.
Pook described the force’s conduct as reminiscent of that of the British state during the Northern Ireland Troubles.
“We’re unhappy that he was put in that position and offered inducements to work for the state,” said Pook. “Was the intention always to use the schedule seven (stop) in order to offer the inducement? If that is the true intention, schedule seven was used unlawfully, because it’s got to be used where you believe somebody may be involved in, or in an act of preparation of, terrorism.”
