UK court remands man in custody over Leytonstone knife attack

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

A UK court has remanded a man in custody after he appeared in court over a stabbing incident in the capital London. Muhaydin Mire, a 29-year-old from east London, was charged with attempted murder after reportedly at least two people were injured, one seriously, in Leytonstone tube station on Saturday. The suspect, who spoke only to confirm personal details in yesterday's hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, is also set to appear at the Old Bailey on Friday.

The motivation for the attack is not yet clear, although prosecutors told yesterday's hearing imagery associated with Daesh was thought to be on the suspect's phone. Witnesses reportedly heard the suspect shout the words "this is for Syria" when the attack occurred. The House of Commons voted in favour of UK military action against Daesh in Syria three days earlier. The Metropolitan Police have said they are treating this attack as a terrorist incident.

Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday condemned the attack as "hideous" and praised the public and police response. "It's obviously a hideous attack," he said, "and we've all seen pictures of it and read about it and first of all, full credit to the person and people who took on this attacker, and full credit to the very brave police officers who managed to subdue him [...] I think this event simply showed again what brilliant and brave and dedicated people there are when it comes to our police officers." Earlier, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "The stabbing in Leytonstone is absolutely shocking. My thoughts are with the victim and his family."

The Prime Minister also endorsed the sentiment of the phrase 'You ain't no Muslim, bruv', which one man is heard to shout in video of the suspect's arrest, and which subsequently became a Twitter trend. "Some of us have dedicated speeches and media appearances and soundbites and everything to this subject," Cameron said, "but 'you ain't no Muslim, bruv' said it all much better than I ever could and thank you because that will be applauded around the country." Additionally, Sadiq Khan, Labour Party candidate for Mayor of London, used the hashtag in a tweet in which he added: "To defeat extremism we must directly challenge their poisonous ideology".

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sister links

December 2015 Leytonstone tube station attack

Sources

"UK charges man with attempted murder over Leytonstone attack" — Middle East Eye, December 7, 2015
"Leytonstone Tube stabbings: Man appears in court" — BBC News Online, December 7, 2015
PA. "David Cameron says 'You ain't no Muslim bruv'" — YouTube, December 7, 2015 (Video)
Sadiq Khan. "To defeat extremism we must directly challenge their poisonous ideology" — Twitter, December 6, 2015
"An attacker at Leytonstone tube reportedly said "this is for Syria" during knife assault" — New Statesman, December 6, 2015
Metropolitan Police. "Cmdr Walton re #Leytonstone" — Twitter, December 5, 2015
Jeremy Corbyn. "The stabbing in Leytonstone is absolutely shocking" — Twitter, December 5, 2015
"House of Commons Hansard Debates for 02 Dec 2015 (pt 0005)" — parliament.uk, December 2, 2015

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License