A controversial Palestinian influencer charged with illegally entering the UK after he arrived on a small boat was assaulted in prison, a court has been told.
Mosab Al Qasas, 33, who is also known as Abu Wadei, has reportedly called for the slaughter of Jews and live streamed his illegal arrival in the UK on a small boat, a court has heard. He was arrested by immigration enforcement officers after arriving in Kent on March 6 and was then placed in a hotel in the Manchester area.
Canterbury Crown Court heard on Thursday that Mr Al Qasas, who left Palestine in 2022 before making asylum claims in Greece, Germany and Belgium, had no familial or financial ties to the UK. Mr Al Qasas had stayed between Calais and Dunkirk in France for about seven days. He then paid people smugglers €1,500 for a place on a boat to cross the English Channel, previous court hearing was told.
Audrey Mogan, defending, said Mr Al Qasas had been joined by 75 other people in the small inflatable boat for the Channel crossing and has now claimed asylum in the UK. The defendant suffered "quite serious injuries", including to his eye, in attacks by other inmates while detained at HMP Dovegate in Staffordshire, Ms Mogan told the court.
No plea was entered by Mr Al Qasas, who appeared from custody and was joined in the dock by an Arabic interpreter during the hearing.
Prosecutor Harriet Palfreman said: "The chronology of the countries that he has been through suggests he has an understanding of the immigration system." Views shared by the defendant online show he "presents a clear threat to the Jewish community", Ms Palfreman told the court.
His arrival in the UK made national headlines after it was reported that Mr Al Qasas, a Palestinian from the city of Khan Younis in Gaza, had posted support for the terror group Hamas on social media, along with hate-speech calling for the death of Jews. It was also reported he posted a video on his Facebook page last September in which he is filmed calling for Allah to "punish (Jews) completely".
The defendant denied the charge during a hearing at Manchester Magistrates' Court last month. Judge Sarah Counsell refused an application for bail on the "substantial grounds" that Mr Al Qasas may abscond from the country or fail to surrender to court. She ordered him to next appear at the same court on May 2.
Mr Al Qasas has a large following on social media, where his TikTok videos attract up to 2.5 million views. His journey from Gaza to the UK was documented on the platform and he posted footage of his dinghy being approached by a Border Force vessel.
He came to public attention in the UK when the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAS) flagged videos in which he called for the slaughter of all Jews and posed with AK-47s. The videos depicted alleged members of the "Tyre-Burning Unit", a Palestinian militant group who are believed to have regularly hurled firebombs and rocks at Israeli forces stationed at the border with Gaza before the outbreak of Israel-Hamas war.
In a statement, the CAS said denying bail to Mr Al Qasas “was the right decision”, and it is calling for him to be charged with terrorism offences. "These proceedings have come about after we revealed that he was part of a Hamas-endorsed unit responsible for violence on the Gaza-Israel border and used anti-Semitic rhetoric at foreign rallies and online,” said the CAS.
The CAS said its solicitors have written to the Crown Prosecution Service to say that Mr Al Qasas “has committed serious offences ... it is in the interests of national security to bring a prosecution on those as well. Failure to do so risks signalling that Britain is a safe haven for terrorists. We cannot be a soft touch."
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