The Manchester Airport trial resumed today with Mohammed Fahir Amaaz facing cross-examination after telling jurors he believed he and his brother were under attack during the violent confrontation at Terminal 2.
Amaaz, 21, and his brother Muhammad Amaad, 26, both of Tarnside Close, Rochdale, deny assaulting armed Greater Manchester Police officer PC Zachary Marsden during the incident at the airport pay station on 23 July 2024.
Giving evidence at Liverpool Crown Court, Amaaz said he kicked and punched people that day deliberately, but insisted he did so only to protect himself and his brother.
He agreed with prosecutor Paul Greaney KC that it was his case that every blow he struck was lawful and that he saw himself as the victim both in the earlier Starbucks confrontation and later in the pay station.
Asked directly whether he believed he had been the person treated badly that day, Amaaz replied: “Yes that’s right.”
Earlier in the morning, Amaaz told the jury he had no intention of harming police officers and denied deliberately assaulting them.
He also described his condition after the incident, saying he was frightened, shaking and suffering a severe headache while in custody at Cheadle Heath police station. He said he later vomited repeatedly and was taken for medical treatment after being released.
Under questioning from his barrister Imran Khan KC, Amaaz said the reason he acted as he did at Manchester Airport was because he believed he and his brother were being attacked.
“The whole time I just felt like me and my brother were being attacked,” he said. “We were just doing everything we could. It felt like we were fighting for our lives.”
Jurors also heard Amaaz maintain that PC Marsden intended to kill him and his brother. When asked by the prosecution whether that was really his position, Amaaz said it was.
Greaney challenged that account, suggesting it was improbable that a police officer intended to murder two men in public. Amaaz replied that public killings by police had happened before and said that was how it felt to him at the time.
The prosecution also pressed Amaaz on his insistence that he did not realise two of the officers he struck were women. He maintained that everything happened within seconds and denied lying about that point.
Greaney accused him of being out of control and of telling “bare faced” lies, but Amaaz repeatedly rejected those suggestions.
The court was also taken back through the earlier Starbucks incident. Amaaz accepted that his mother had told him a man on the flight had racially abused her and hit her with a suitcase.
He said he was upset and shocked by what she told him, but denied being enraged or wanting revenge.
Amaaz accepted he could have walked away or called police instead of confronting Abdulkareem Ismaeil inside Starbucks, but said he had wanted an apology and hoped to resolve the matter there and then without involving officers.
He maintained that Starbucks staff who gave evidence earlier in the trial were mistaken when they said the men were not speaking English. Amaaz said the exchange had been entirely in English and repeated his claim that Ismaeil had shouted threats including “I will smash you” and “I will f****** kill you”.
The prosecution challenged that account and said those threats had not been made. Amaaz rejected that and continued to deny that he had unlawfully assaulted Ismaeil, despite his previous conviction over the incident.
When shown CCTV, Amaaz accepted that the footage showed him headbutting Ismaeil, but said he had done so to get him away from him and denied doing it out of anger or revenge.
He also blamed PC Marsden’s actions for placing the other officers at risk, telling the court that if the officer had not used force in the way he did, he would not be standing trial.
The hearing ended with the trial adjourned until 10.30am tomorrow.