The Metropolitan Police have agreed to pay a Christian preacher £10,000 in compensation after she was arrested, searched and detained for 15 hours.
Hatun Tash was arrested as she ready to present a sermon at Audio system' Nook, a venue in London's Hyde Park with an extended custom of free speech and public debate.
On the time, she was sporting a Charlie Hebdo t-shirt and a Koran prop with holes in it, which she supposed to make use of as a visible help to argue that Islamic theology has holes in it.
As Miss Tash was preparing on Sunday, June 26, 2022, a person grabbed her Koran and ran off with it. When her Christian companions referred to as the police to report the theft, officers requested Miss Tash to go away the world. A disturbing video exhibits her being dragged right into a police van in entrance of a jeering crowd after she refused to go away.
The Christian Legislation Middle (CLC), which supported Miss Tash in her authorized motion towards the police, stated that after being loaded right into a police van, her belongings had been left unattended in Audio system' Nook the place they may have been stolen.
It says officers informed her she was arrested for “legal harm” and for sporting a Charlie Hebdo T-shirt depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
She was taken to Charing Cross police station the place she was searched and questioned at 4am earlier than lastly being launched at 9am after 15 hours in custody. She was informed no additional motion can be taken however was given no help to retrieve her belongings from Audio system' Nook.
The legal professionals argued that the police “didn’t fairly imagine it [Miss Tash] she was concerned within the fee of a criminal offense, within the first incident it was clear that she had achieved nothing unlawful, and within the second incident the officers believed that the best answer to the issue was to 'eliminate our consumer'.”
Miss Tash donated the settlement cash to a company supporting people who’ve skilled persecution after leaving the Islamic religion.
Commenting on the settlement, she accused the police of “two-tier policing” and urged that the “Muslim mobs” at Audio system' Nook seemed to be “above the regulation”.
“I used to be handled horribly by the police and repeatedly humiliated after I had achieved nothing improper,” she stated.
Miss Tash is the director of the Defend Christ Critique Islam ministry and recurrently preaches in Hyde Park. It’s the second time the Met has paid her £10,000 after she was arrested on the identical location in 2022. In that incident, she was arrested after reporting to police that she was being harassed and threatened by Islamic protesters.
She had been stabbed on the identical location a yr earlier, however her assailant was by no means caught. In September 2022, she grew to become the goal of a foiled homicide plot by Muslim convert Edward Little, who was jailed for all times final December after pleading responsible.
Miss Tash continued: “Extra must be achieved to correctly sort out Islamic violence and intimidation in Audio system' Nook. We don't reside in Pakistan, we don't reside in Saudi Arabia. I'm a Christian and by default I imagine Muhammad is a false prophet. I must be allowed to say that within the Uk with out being stabbed or repeatedly arrested.
“I’m involved that energy has been handed to Muslim mobs on Britain's streets and there’s no going again. The British public urgently want and deserve higher policing.”
CLC chief govt Andrea Williams stated the footage of Miss Tash being marched away from the world represented “one other deplorable episode of policing in Audio system' Nook” and a “totalitarian strategy to anybody who opposes Islam in London”.
“If it's not protected to criticize Islamic ideology in Audio system' Nook, then it's not protected anyplace,” she stated.
