The United Kingdom has convicted Ahmed Alid, 45, an asylum seeker from Morocco, of murder for stabbing Terence Carney, a 70-year-old British man, six times in the streets of Hartlepool on October 15. The vicious rampage occurred just eight days after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, triggering the Israel-Hamas war.
According to prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford, Alid told police he had committed the act “for the people of Gaza” and swore he would have killed more if he had access to a machine gun and other weapons.
Minutes before the attack on Carney, Alid had also hacked at his sleeping housemate, Javed Nouri, while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic. Alid was upset that Nouri had converted to Christianity.
Housemates reported that Alid began carrying a knife after watching TV coverage of the Hamas attacks and Israel’s subsequent bombing of Gaza.
Nouri told the police that Alid would praise God every time Hamas killed somebody, which greatly disturbed him.
Despite Nouri’s complaints to housing officials, the Home Office, and police, Alid justified killing an innocent man by claiming that Britain helped create the “Zionist entity” of Israel, which had “killed innocent children.”
During his police interview, Alid became agitated and attacked the two female detectives questioning him.
The panic button in the interview room malfunctioned, and other officers only intervened after Alid’s defense lawyer called an emergency number for help.
Alid also received a conviction for assaulting the officers in addition to the murder and attempted murder charges.
Although he acknowledged the stabbings, he denied the charges, claiming he had no intent to kill or cause serious harm.
The date of Alid’s sentencing is May 17.
