It lasted just 84 seconds. But its impact far outweighed its brevity.
During that nearly minute-and-a-half, an episode of utter mayhem unfolded that had repercussions far beyond its immediate vicinity in Terminal 2 of Manchester Airport.
It was an episode that made headlines around the world; spawned protests; provoked comment from political leaders; and ended with British policing under fire.
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Within hours, footage filmed by bystanders had gone viral and made its way onto TVs and newspaper websites across the world.
Some claimed it appeared to show ‘out of control’ police acting violently and potentially abusing their powers. One officer kicked a young Asian man in the face, before appearing to stamp on his head.
Footage exclusively obtained by the Manchester Evening News painted a fuller picture. Police had been called after the man had headbutted a member of the public in a Starbucks cafe.
Incident at Manchester Airport seen in footage shown to court
After police moved in, the man launched a violent assault on two female police officers. He became involved in a violent confrontation with the officer who would go on to kick him in the face.
The man’s brother also became involved. The pair maintained they were acting in self-defence and have since been cleared of that charge.
Almost two years later, the siblings – Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, and Muhammad Amaad, 26 – have faced two crown court trials. Amaaz faces sentencing next month after being convicted of assaulting two police officers and a member of the public.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, left, and Muhammad Amaad(Image: Getty)
Two juries could not agree on Amaad and Amaaz’s joint charge of assaulting an armed police officer. They have since been cleared of that offence. Amaad has walked free.
It is the culmination of an extraordinary legal battle which featured interventions from Sir Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham, Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson; a social media storm; and a fractious courtroom atmosphere rarely seen in the British criminal justice system.
It also included failed bids by the brothers’ legal teams to have the trials aborted and for members of the jury to have their mobile phones examined by the judge amid claims of a ‘toxic environment’ in court.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz(Image: GMP)
The judge also dismissed a defence ‘recusal’ application to sack himself, rejecting claims he had been ‘sexist or intimidatory’ towards Amaad’s barrister during the trial.
Here, the Manchester Evening News looks back at the case, in full…
Chaos at Terminal 2
It all began on the evening of Tuesday, July 23, 2024.
PC Zachary Marsden – a relatively inexperienced officer who only became a cop five years earlier, and who only qualified as an ‘authorised firearms officer’ 15 months before – his colleague PC Ellie Cook, also armed; and their colleague PC Lydia Ward were on duty at the airport.
Little did they know all hell would break loose during their shift that night.
The officers had been called out to Terminal 2 and tasked with trying to detain Amaaz, then 19. Officers didn’t know at the time, but he was with his brother, Amaad, then 25, and other family members.
Stills of mobile phone footage of PC Marsden and Mohammed Fahir Amaaz(Image: Facebook)
Events turned ugly, suddenly, in the Terminal 2 car park pay station minutes after they had first arrived at the scene near Starbucks at 8.28pm.
The genesis of the whole incident came on an eight-hour Qatar Airways flight from Pakistan, when the mother of the accused brothers – mum-of-six Shameem Akhtar, then 58 – alleged a fellow passenger had called her a ‘P**i bitch’ on board and had smashed his luggage into her legs.
That man was Abdulkareem Hamzah Abbas Ismaeil, an official in the Kuwait ministry of the interior who was going on holiday with his wife and three children.
CCTV showed Amaaz confronting Mr Ismaeil at Starbucks inside Terminal 2 before launching a flying headbutt at Mr Ismaeil, following up the blow with a left and a right hook. He was knocked backwards and his wife and children appeared shocked.
A grab of body cam footage from the pay station area released by the CPS(Image: CPS)
The barista and duty manager at Starbucks both told both trials Amaaz was the aggressor and neither heard Mr Ismaeil threatening to kill Amaaz, as he claimed.
The footage showed Mr Ismaeil immediately calling the police, although he refused to provide a formal statement about the attack.
The absent Mr Ismaeil was accused in court of telling Amaaz ‘do you know who I am?’ and ‘I’m going to f***ing kill you’.
Nobody gave evidence to corroborate those claims put forward by both brothers. The siblings could have called the police to report the alleged threat there and then. They didn’t.
Neither did they call their eldest brother Mohammed Abid, who is a serving GMP cop. Or their ex-cop uncle Nazir Hussain, who had retired after 30 years with GMP.
A video footage still released by the CPS and shown to trial jurors(Image: CPS)
Amaad, who left jobs at KFC and Virgin Media – the latter because of publicity around the case – had twice applied to join GMP and told the jury he had ‘the utmost respect for the police’.
Mr Ismaeil was interviewed under caution on suspicion of racially aggravated assault but no charges were brought, it emerged during legal argument in the absence of the jury.
It is understood police spoke to passengers seated close by and none of them said they heard a racial slur or saw an assault.
PCs Zachary Marsden, Ellie Cook and Lydia Ward(Image: GMP)
It was into this situation that PCs Marsden, Cook and Ward entered the pay station, pursuing Amaaz as he made his way to the car park.
There, PCs Marsden and Ward grabbed hold of the arms of Amaaz without saying a word. The intention, they said, was to take him outside and away from other members of the public to arrest him.
Almost instantly he started to resist. It prompted a shocking scene of violence in front of children and other members of the public.
A still from CCTV footage at the pay station shown to jurors(Image: GMP)
According to the defence, a friendly chat and an invitation to go outside with them would have been more appropriate.
The defence suggested during legal argument in the subsequent trial an ‘out of control’ squad of armed – white cops potentially motivated by race – used unlawful force on the two brothers who feared they would be killed and were entitled to defend themselves.
They argued even the arrest was unlawful as it was to take place ‘some time later’.
PC Lydia Ward in a body cam footage still shown to jurors(Image: GMP)
The police officers who came under attack in the airport pay station described a ‘hostile’ atmosphere, where instead of intervening, some people simply filmed events on their mobile phones.
Others carried on paying for their parking despite the pandemonium all around them.
Three other brothers – named in the trial as Ali, Sahid and Ihsan Rahman – were captured on CCTV filming the incident. They were later cornered by police and two of them were arrested although they faced no further action.
Phone footage goes viral as protests begin
Some of that mobile phone footage, which captured PC Marsden kicking into the face of Amaaz, was shared on the internet and was published the following day by the Manchester Evening News.
The brothers were soon named in the media. Their cause was taken up by Akhmed Yakoob, a TikTok lawyer from Birmingham. He later stepped away from the case.
On July 24, the day after the incident, Greater Manchester Police released a statement saying the force ‘acknowledge[d] the concerns of the conduct within the video’ before announcing the matter would be assessed by its Professional Standards Directorate.
New Manchester Airport video shows chaotic scene before man ‘kicked’ in head by police officer
That night hundreds of protesters gathered outside Rochdale police station, close to the home of Amaaz and his brother Amaad. Fireworks were let off and people chanted ‘GMP shame on you’.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who had been shown the as-yet unpublished surrounding footage, said the incident was not ‘clear cut’.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he had also watched the footage and that he ‘understands the concerns’ of the public, adding that the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper would be meeting with Mr Burnham.
Protestors demonstrate in St Peter’s Square (Image: Getty)
The same day, GMP announced an officer had been ‘removed from operational duties’ and the force had escalated the case to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Manchester Stand Up to Racism organised another protest barely 24 hours later, that time outside the Manchester offices of Mr Burnham, whose role involves oversight of GMP.
Demonstrators blocked a tramline for an hour and held up placards which read ‘dismantle GMP now’.
Solicitor Akhmed Yakoob(Image: James Speakman/PA Wire)
Around 100 people gathered outside the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) offices on Oxford Street in the city centre as chants of ‘no justice, no peace’ rang out.
Inside GMP, concern was rising about the mounting protests. There were discussions about whether journalists should be shown the other footage to provide some context. It wasn’t shown.
On Saturday, July 27 – four days after the incident – the Manchester Evening News obtained, then published, further CCTV footage.
Footage obtained by the M.E.N.(Image: M.E.N.)
It showed how the cop who delivered the kick, PC Marsden, and his colleagues appeared to come under attack moments before.
Security staff at Manchester Airport had been bracing themselves for a protest planned for that Saturday afternoon. That demonstration never materialised. There were no more anti-police protests.
Press conferences, complaints and investigations
Meanwhile, Greater Manchester Police and the police watchdog the IOPC were at the beginning of their own investigations, which were to take many more months.
On July 29, 2024, Glasgow-based solicitor Aamer Anwar was revealed as the brothers’ new lawyer. He confirmed he had lodged a formal complaint with the IOPC about the actions of the airport cops.
Crowds gathered outside Rochdale police station following the incident at Manchester Airport(Image: ASP)
During a press conference at The Midland hotel, the lawyer was seated alongside the brothers and their mother, Shameem Akhtar, who had an injury under her left eye.
Mr Anwar said the published footage was ‘incomplete’ and said the family had been subject to ‘vile’ racist abuse online which he said had not been investigated by the police who he also accused of a ‘cynical’ attempt to ‘mould the narrative’.
The lawyer said the mother had been subjected to a ‘tirade of alleged racist abuse’ by a man on the flight who called her a ‘P*** b****’ before she was picked up by her sons and was hit in the face by a police Taser during the incident.
Solicitor Aamer Anwar, second right, accompanies brothers Muhammad Amaad, left, Fahir Amaaz, right and their mother Shameem Akhtar during a press conference(Image: Getty)
Mr Anwar said the family were ‘shocked at the unnecessary aggression and violence’ of the police. He made a series of allegations about what officers allegedly said and did, including that police body-cams were switched off.
Mr Anwar told the press conference the family had been ‘subjected to horrific racist and Islamophobic abuse on social media’ since the incident and alleged ‘there has been a campaign of disinformation in an attempt to justify alleged police violence’.
Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson and an extraordinary courtroom battle
GMP handed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) a ‘comprehensive’ file of evidence by the middle of August 2024.
By October 2024, no charges had yet been brought. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party threatened to mount a private prosecution if criminal charges were not brought by the CPS.
The CPS authorised charges in December 2025 for Mohammed Fahir Amaaz and his brother Muhammad Amaad. Crown bosses confirmed no criminal charges would be brought against the police.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP (stock image)(Image: M.E.N.)
The trial, which was transferred out of Greater Manchester to Liverpool Crown Court, was scheduled for July 2025.
It was then that the barristers instructed by the brothers’ legal team began their extraordinary courtroom battle. The first four days of the first trial were entirely taken up by arguments between prosecution and defence.
Halfway through the trial the defence, after repeatedly threatening to make a formal application to ditch the trial, made good on that promise.
They argued threats on social media that there would be riots unless guilty verdicts were reached meant a fair trial was impossible.
Trial judge, Neil Flewitt KC, dismissed that application. The arguments began, with the defence asking for a jury questionnaire containing 40 questions. Those were whittled down to a smaller number following discussion.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, left foreground, and Muhammad Amaad, right, outside Liverpool Crown Court last year(Image: Getty)
Judge Flewitt dismissed one suggested question – to ask the jurors to recall what they had read or seen – as ‘very close to vetting’ the jury for their political views.
Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC criticised the move as ‘hopelessly flawed’, adding that it would mean jurors being asked whether they had seen social media posts six months previously – and, if so, which ones.
He said that even if jurors had seen tweets by right-wing figures such as Nigel Farage or Tommy Robinson, ‘the question was designed to infer something from that fact about their politics’.
“That’s simply not an appropriate basis to proceed,” claimed the KC, who suggested it may simply be the work of an ‘algorithm’ which had added a tweet to a juror’s feed.
CCTV footage shown to trial jurors(Image: CPS)
Much of the early behind-the-scenes disagreement was about whether the jury should be allowed to view footage of what happened to the brothers after they had been marched handcuffed out of the Terminal 2 pay station, where the violence happened.
Before the start of both trials, the defence tried and failed to persuade the judge to rule out CCTV showing Amaaz launching a headbutt and two punches at Mr Ismaeil.
Remarkably, the defence wanted the footage – as well as the eyewitness testimony of the duty manager of Starbucks and a barista – to be struck out.
As there was no sound on the CCTV, the defence argued it would be unfair to play it to the jury as there would be no opportunity to show Mr Ismaeil had threatened the brothers, as they claimed, nor to question him in court as he had declined to support the prosecution.
Imran Khan KC, for Amaaz, insisted that the two eyewitnesses were both mistaken in believing the verbals between Mr Ismaeil and the defendants were in a foreign language, claiming they were in fact speaking English.
PC Ellie Cook’s injuries(Image: CPS)
Mr Khan argued PC Marsden had been ‘coming up with grander and more outlandish reasons for justifying his actions’ and that the CCTV ‘played out of context would lead to unfairness to the defence’, while Mr Ismaeil was ‘not prepared to assist in any way’.
He said PC Marsden’s assessment of the threat he faced as he walked to the pay station to arrest Amaaz was ‘incorrect’. He questioned whether the prosecution had made enough effort to call Mr Ismaeil to court.
Chloe Gardner, Amaad’s barrister, claimed that police had ‘completely failed’ to properly investigate the Starbucks incident and vowed to apply to throw the whole case out for an ‘abuse of process’.
Judge Flewitt said it would be ‘utterly bizarre’ not to show the CCTV and admitted he was ‘struggling’ to understand the defence arguments.
Mr Greaney went further. He told the judge such an application should have been made much earlier and that this was ‘no way to behave’.
He said ‘to ambush the prosecution is simply disgraceful’. The language used was a sign of the plummeting relationships between the barristers in court.
Judge Neil Flewitt, QC(Image: Jason Roberts Photography)
With no sign that the first trial proper was going to start any time soon, Judge Flewitt said he did not want to ‘get into a situation we left behind 20 years ago when we had one disclosure request followed by another and another and another’.
The following morning – on day three of the case – the jury was finally sworn in, but immediately sent home so the behind-the-scenes legal disputes could continue.
Mr Khan claimed his client Amaaz had been ‘frogmarched’ and ‘rough handled’ by another officer, PC Mark Flanagan, to an area behind a pillar ‘deliberately so as to avoid CCTV’ while his own body-camera was turned off.
There, a passing female counter terrorism officer said she had heard PC Flanagan telling Amaaz ‘if you do anything, I will f***ing kick your head in’ and then reported the comments to her bosses, it was claimed.
Meanwhile Ms Gardner said her client Amaad, who was captured in the footage with blood in his mouth, had been kicked in the stomach while handcuffed. She said PC Flanagan was captured saying: “You f***ing move and I will smack your f***ing face in, do you understand?”
The court heard PC Flanagan, a former boyfriend of one of the assaulted cops PC Ellie Cook, was captured saying: “After all this is finished punching two of my female colleagues I’m going to f***ing kill you, do you understand?”
Muhammad Amaad, centre, arriving at Liverpool Crown Court for this week’s hearing(Image: PA)
Mr Khan claimed it was ‘fundamental’ to the case as it suggested a group of officers were ‘out of control’ and did not act within the law or police codes of conduct.
It was a ‘continuing pattern’ all the way from Starbucks to outside the car park pay station, he said. PCs Flanagan and Cook took Amaaz behind a pillar ‘to issue threats’, he said.
“I don’t see how any of that can be irrelevant to the jury,” said Mr Khan, who said his case was that officers were ‘attacking two young men for no reason’ and that they ‘defended themselves and others’. The officers had wanted to ‘get away with it’, he claimed.
Mr Khan said he wanted to challenge the evidence of PC Marsden, who said in his statements he feared the situation would escalate because of the ‘crowd dynamic’ in the pay station.
The defence KC pointed out the people gathered at the pay station were from a ‘minority ethnic group’. He suggested the officer was ‘culturally insensitive and potentially prejudicial’.
Asked by the judge if he thought the incident concerning Amaaz ‘could be about his ethnicity’, Mr Khan said: “It could be.” He questioned whether the officer had gone into the scene and ‘saw a bunch of Asians’ he thought ‘hated cops’.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz(Image: PA)
“That would be wrong in terms of professional standards and it would be unlawful,” he said. He referenced a ‘neck hold’ used by PC Marsden which he claimed was ‘very dangerous’ and which he said was not part of police training.
The group of officers ‘practically threw the rule book out’, he said. Day three of the first trial came and went and day four was more of the same. Still the case proper hadn’t started.
Mr Khan successfully argued that footage of police officers, including PC Marsden, cornering three men who had been filming the incident on their phones moments after the violence should be shown to the jury.
But the goings-on behind the pillar was ‘non-sinister’, according to the prosecutor, who pointed out that it was a public area where people could come and go and that it was covered by CCTV although from a distance. Footage was played to the judge to prove the point.
PC Cook had turned her camera off two minutes earlier and not moments before heading behind the pillar – as claimed by the defence – and so the officers were ‘not cooking something up’, said the prosecutor, who went on that the episode was ‘irrelevant’. The judge agreed.
Courtroom drama continues
On day five of the first trial, the jurors were brought into court and the prosecutor finally delivered his opening address on Friday July 4, 2025. At last, the first trial was underway.
It didn’t last long. Proceedings came to a grinding halt again on July 15 – as the prosecution case was nearing its end – when the defence again raised the spectre of social media comment swirling around the internet.
During his failed application to get the case thrown out, Mr Khan pointed to threats to riot ‘if the right verdicts are not reached’.
He told the judge: “We have got to the point where we take the view these defendants cannot receive a fair trial.”
Muhammad Amaad outside Liverpool Crown Court on Friday (May 29)(Image: PA)
He pointed to posts by Tommy Robinson and former police officer turned campaigner Norman Brennan. The jury was told to stay away on July 16, when the argument was made and ultimately lost.
Judge Flewitt eventually threw out the application from the defence to ‘stay’ or postpone the case on the grounds jurors must have seen the torrent of social media comment which, it was said, made a fair trial impossible.
The judge suggested one remedy could be to repeat a question he had asked the jurors before the trial started. Whether, if they had seen any social media posts about the incident, they could try the defendants fairly. All 12 had said they could at the outset of the case.
The defence insisted, no matter what the response from the jury was, their phones should be taken from them and their devices checked to see what posts they had viewed.
They also suggested the court should write to X, Facebook, Reddit and YouTube to stop people commenting on the case until its conclusion.
Liverpool Crown Court(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Mr Khan said: “The suggestion that there will be rioting is not a fanciful assertion in the light of the events that occurred. The jury will know this as members of the local community. They will be fearful that arriving at the ‘wrong’ decision to acquit the defendants might result in disorder which could affect them, their loved ones and their community. In this case there is a wealth of posts and comments numbering in the thousands which threaten violence in the event of the ‘wrong’ verdict.”
Judge Flewitt said: “The risk of prejudice is only if the jury don’t do as I told them.” He said the jurors were ‘real people’ who could ‘make their own judgments about things’.
He added that there was ‘no reason to suppose they won’t do as they’re told’. Judge Flewitt added: “As to Mr Khan’s suggestion I stop social media, I don’t think I can.”
He refused the application and went on that he was ‘absolutely not getting involved in taking jurors’ mobile phones’.
The judge added: “It would completely undermine our relationship with the jury.” The jurors were asked again and all 12 confirmed they could be fair, so the trial continued.
Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (stock image)(Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)
Just as Mr Amaad was taking to the witness box on July 21 last year to tell the jurors he had acted in self-defence during what the prosecution described as a ‘pummelling’ of PC Marsden, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was hosting a press conference about how his party would tackle crime.
He told the media: “In a system of two-tier policing, under two-tier justice, under two-tier Kier, has really taken hold. You only have to look at the reluctance to prosecute those violent thugs in Manchester Airport who beat up the police officers.
“It took months and months for any prosecution to be brought, and I suspect the reason that it happened is because Reform said if they didn’t, we would take out our own private prosecution.”
A member of the public alerted Judge Flewitt and the trial was in jeopardy once more, with the defence arguing again the defendants couldn’t receive a fair trial and asking for the case to be postponed. The judge said the comments ‘would be better not said’ but he went on that it didn’t add ‘very much’ to the posts he had already made during the trial.
Mr Khan argued there were key differences, including that Mr Farage was ‘hugely influential in British politics’ and was ‘touted as a potential Prime Minister so what he says has a great deal of import’, pointing out that he had 2.2m followers on X.
Muhammad Amaad outside Liverpool Crown Court on Friday(Image: Liverpool Echo)
He was not a ‘crackpot’ trumpeting ‘conspiracy theories about how the criminal justice system was working or not working’ and his comments had been reported on BBC News ‘at a critical time in the defence case’.
He said jurors may have ‘inadvertently’ become aware of the comments on social media. Mr Khan said: “It’s not just a little puddle. It’s turned into a river, into a lake, into an ocean.”
Judge Flewitt threw out the application to postpone the trial, but confirmed he was considering whether to refer Mr Farage’s comments to the Attorney General. He later confirmed he had referred Mr Farage. More recently the Attorney General’s office said contempt proceedings have not been issued.
On Friday, Mr Farage said: “This is a disgraceful action from the judge.”
During the legal arguments at the first trial, the judge frequently criticised posts on social media and in his written judgment he said posts by Tommy Robinson and those of his followers were ‘hostile and offensive’.
On July 30 last year the jury convicted Amaaz of assaulting the two female PCs and Mr Ismaeil. He was remanded into custody.
But the jury could not reach verdicts on charges that the brothers both assaulted PC Marsden. The media could report the verdicts but the legal disputes could not – because of the press restrictions which remained in force until the conclusion of the case- be revealed.
A controversial emoji and a demand the judge sacks himself
Another hearing took place on August 27 last year. It was supposed to be a bail application on behalf of Amaaz, who had been remanded into custody following his convictions, but that was parked.
Instead, the defence argued, unsuccessfully, in front of a more senior judge, the Recorder of Liverpool, Andrew Menary KC, that the retrial had to be shifted to another crown court because of alleged bias.
Mr Khan pointed to an anonymous email he received which alleged the clerk of the court – not a lawyer but an official who manages the court for the judge – had told police in court that PC Marsden ‘should have kicked Amaaz harder in the head’.
The comment was said to have been made on the day PC Marsden was being cross-examined by Mr Khan and it was even noted by the police in court during a Microsoft Teams meeting with a ‘laughing face with hand over mouth’ emoji.
Lawyer Aamer Anwar, centre, arrives at Liverpool Crown Court with Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, right, and Muhammed Amaad, left(Image: Getty)
The barrister said the matter had been referred to GMP’s professional standards department and the IOPC.
“To say that this was a shocking revelation is an understatement,” said Mr Khan, adding that it suggested the trial court was a ‘toxic environment’.
Mr Greaney said the argument ‘an inappropriate remark in July 2025 might contaminate a juror’ during the retrial was ‘to say the least, fanciful’.
Throwing out the application, Judge Menary pointed out nobody had suggested the trial judge had been biased.
Even though the comment was ‘thoroughly inappropriate’, the clerk had ‘no judicial function at all’. He said it was ‘proportionate’ to ensure the clerk played no part in the retrial and he concluded that ‘impartiality can be maintained’ by keeping the retrial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Before the retrial, the defence made an astonishing ‘recusal’ application, in effect asking Judge Flewitt KC to sack himself. He dismissed the allegation he had been ‘sexist and intimidatory’ to female lawyers in court.
A still of CCTV footage shown to trial jurors(Image: CPS)
Ms Gardner, defending Amaad, claimed the judge had called her ’emotional’, but the judgment reveals that the transcript of the exchange showed he had only said he would not be responding to her ‘more emotive submissions’.
She told the judge it was ‘shocking’ that he had questioned why the brothers had viewed racially abusive messages online.
The prosecution said her language was ‘surprising emotion from an experienced advocate’ while the judge’s reaction was ‘moderate and appropriate’.
With the same judge still presiding, the second trial began on April 13, with Mr Greaney opening the case for the prosecution the same day.
There were much fewer breaks for legal arguments in the absence of the jury, and relations between the legal teams appeared less fractious in court.
Fewer legal arguments did not reduce the length of the re-trial, with it again running for five weeks. While accepting Amaaz’s convictions at the first trial, both he and his brother argued that the first jury had got it wrong.
On May 20, the second jury again could not reach verdicts on the remaining charge, alleging that Amaaz and Amaad had assaulted PC Marsden, occasioning actual bodily harm. At a further hearing today (May 29), prosecutors confirmed they would not seek a third trial. The brothers were both cleared of assaulting PC Marsden. Not guilty verdicts were recorded against the defendants by the judge.
Prosecution counsel Paul Greaney KC said the decision to not pursue another trial had been taken at the ‘highest level’ of the CPS. He said the law stated there was a ‘clear presumption’ against a third trial unless there were ‘exceptional circumstances’ and when the case was of ‘extreme gravity’.
PC Lydia Ward in body cam footage released during the trial(Image: GMP)
Mr Greaney said that while the case was ‘serious’, it did not meet the test for ‘extreme gravity’. The prosecutor told the court that there had been information which was ‘wholly false’ which had gained ‘traction on social media’, stating that Amaaz had been convicted on other offences and that jurors had not been deadlocked on all charges.
Mr Amaad hugged supporters outside the courtroom following the conclusion of the hearing. Earlier in court, his lawyer Chloe Gardner said her client had faced ‘trial by court’ and ‘by social media’ and had been unable to work. She applied for a defendant costs order to cover expenses he had incurred while facing trial.
His brother Amaaz, who appeared by video link from prison where he has remained since the conclusion of the first trial, was remanded in custody. Amaaz will be sentenced on June 26.
It marks the end of an extraordinary saga which has had reverberations way beyond the small courtroom in Liverpool city centre.
IOPC probe ‘at an advanced stage’
Meanwhile, the Independent Office for Police Conduct said its investigation into the behaviour of police officers on July 23, 2024 is at an ‘advanced stage’.
An IOPC spokesperson said: “Our independent investigation into the use of force by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers during a series of arrests at Manchester Airport in July 2024 is at an advanced stage.
“New evidence, gathered as part of a separate investigation, came to our attention in October 2025 and as a result, there are now additional lines of inquiry for us to explore before we can finalise our decisions.
“IOPC investigators are now working through various strands of investigative material before any decisions are made on the next steps.
“We will continue to keep the relevant parties updated as we work to conclude matters as swiftly as possible.”
‘Online vilification, condemnation and adverse commentary’
Following the hearing, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson issued a statement.
He said: “Following a protracted trial, the jury have been unable to deliver a verdict. Whilst disappointed that the prosecution case was not fully endorsed, we respect the findings of the court and accept the outcome of the jury’s thoughtful deliberations.
“This incident began after a man was headbutted in a public place in front of his family. Our officers were responding quickly to precisely the sort of outrageous criminal behaviour that rightly offends the public.
GMP Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson(Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)
“In undertaking their duties, officers were met with resistance and violence; followed by online vilification, condemnation and adverse commentary from those who did not have the full facts.
“It is vital that officers get the respect and support they deserve for routinely putting themselves in harm’s way to protect the public.
“Assaults on police officers are sadly all too common – 35 of my officers are assaulted every week across Greater Manchester – and such incidents can never be justified.
“I am particularly grateful to those many members of the public who have contacted the force in order to pass on their best wishes to the officers affected.
“Whilst the criminal trial is now concluded, we are cognisant of the ongoing IOPC investigation into the conduct of our officers. We will continue to cooperate fully with this investigation, and we look forward to its conclusion in due course.”
‘An orgy of race hate’
Following the hearing, Aamer Anwar, the brothers’ solicitor, told reporters outside court: “The position of the two brothers has always been that they acted in self-defence and today they were formally acquitted and a verdict of not guilty was recorded.
“Since the two brothers were charged in 2024, they have been subjected to an orgy of race hate. Meanwhile, politicians such as Nigel Farage and far-right activists have operated with total impunity.
“Social media posts viewed by millions, created a highly prejudicial atmosphere in which a lynch mob mentality that was racist and anti-Muslim, called for deportation, riots, the death penalty and hanging of the two brothers if they were acquitted. Even their sister and her newborn baby were threatened.
(Left to right) Robbie Cole, Aamer Anwar and Muhammad Amaad outside Liverpool Crown Court(Image: PA)
“The brothers have been accused of being rapists, terrorists, drug dealers, yet they are nothing of the sort. It is a matter of public record that prior to this incident that both Fahir Amaaz and Mohammed Amaad had never been in trouble before and they come from a law-abiding family of multiple police officers, who still serve with Greater Manchester Police, including their own older brother.”
He added: “During the two trials social media – beginning with the backdrop of the Southport riots – has played an incendiary role, almost derailing the administration of justice.
“Nigel Farage went onto discuss this live case during the first trial at a Reform press conference on the July 21, 2025. This happened during the trial.
Muhammad Amaad (Image: Getty)
“A press conference took place during the first trial and was broadcast live on BBC News, Times News and [a] YouTube channel. Mr Farage’s posts reach an audience of millions.
“Many, of course, would amplify the message, misinform, incite and inflame, with unacceptable attacks on the jury, falsely accusing them of being all Asian and all Muslim. Nothing was further from the truth.
“The jury is the foundation of our legal system for hundreds of years and must be protected from unwarranted attacks by armchair activists and the far-right.
“There was nothing two-tier about the justice meted on my clients as they faced two trials and an estimated £2m of costs being spent on this case. Today, justice was done.
Muhammad Amaad (second right) outside Liverpool Crown Court, following the decision that he and his brother, Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, will not face a third trial(Image: PA)
“The trial judge last year in the first trial referred Nigel Farage to the Attorney General for the consideration of contempt of court. We also lodged a dossier with the Attorney General on Mr Farage and several prominent far-right social media offenders. The issue was whether they were guilty of Contempt of Court.
“It was disappointing that the Attorney General did not believe there was substantial risk of those comments seriously prejudicing the course of justice and chose to take no action.
“The right to a fair trial is a fundamental principle of the justice system, where public commentary or online activity undermines that principle, the law must applied consistently and without fear or favour.
“As for our armed officers, who are supposed to be highly trained professionals, they are expected to take split second decisions which can have the power of life and death. But, quite rightly in a democracy, they are expected to justify the decisions they take.
“Both Mr Fahir Amaaz, who has been in custody for some ten months, and Mohammed Amaad have not just faced trial twice, but they have faced trial by social media.
“Their lives have been wrecked. But this is not over.”
‘The law is clear’
The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement: “Mohammed Fahir Amaaz carried out a violent series of assaults, first an unprovoked attack on a member of the public before turning his aggression on police officers who were responding to the incident.
“During that attack, two female officers were assaulted, with one left bleeding after suffering a broken nose. The officers were carrying out their duties to protect the public in a busy airport when they were assaulted.
“Following a trial, Amaaz was convicted by a jury of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to PC Lydia Ward, assault on an emergency worker in relation to PC Ellie Cook, and assault by beating in relation to a member of the public. He will be sentenced for his violent actions in due course.
“The jury in the first trial was unable to reach a verdict on a further count relating to an assault on a third police officer. A retrial was held, but a second jury has also been unable to reach a verdict on that count.
“The law is clear that any further retrial in these circumstance would be highly exceptional. After careful consideration, we have concluded that it is not in the public interest to seek another trial.”