{"id":611742,"date":"2026-05-30T08:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T08:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/611742\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T08:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T08:28:07","slug":"manchester-cafe-owner-says-police-tried-to-recruit-him-to-spy-on-palestine-action-palestine-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/611742\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester cafe owner says police tried to recruit him to spy on Palestine Action | Palestine Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cafe owner claims police offered him financial benefits and to turn a \u201cblind eye\u201d to certain low-level offences if he informed on Palestine Action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shams (his nickname) Sadiq, who owns two Manchester cafes, said the inducements were offered when he went to collect electronic devices that police had confiscated during his arrest last year in connection with alleged offences relating to the banned direct action group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sadiq, 51, from Didsbury, said that when he attended Ashton-under-Lyne police station on 15 May, two officers he believes were from Operation Wildflower \u2013 a response by Greater Manchester<\/a> police (GMP) and others to the war on Gaza \u2013 asked to speak to him \u201cman to man\u201d.<\/p>\n

The officers told him that having checked his devices, they knew he was \u201cfully involved\u201d with Palestine Action but that they would not be charging him in relation to last year\u2019s arrest, Sadiq said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said to me: \u2018We need your help. Look, there\u2019s benefits in helping us,\u2019\u201d he told the Guardian. \u201cI\u2019m like: \u2018What kind of benefits? Financial benefits? Are you going to pay my taxes?\u2019 They said: \u2018Oh, we can help with things like that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other guy said to me: \u2018Oh, there\u2019s other benefits, too.\u2019 They said: \u2018We\u2019re not saying you can go out and commit a serious crime but we can turn a blind eye to certain things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadiq said he then asked if they could get rid of his speeding tickets and they answered: \u201cWe don\u2019t care about speeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

He interpreted \u201chelp\u201d to mean \u201cwith their investigations [into Palestine Action] because they said I am involved and maybe be an informer. They also said I\u2019m quite respected in my community, so maybe they think I would help them find Muslims in the mosque with extreme views.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadiq, who remains under investigation in relation to a 2024 alleged Palestine Action-related offence, said that four days before the offer, he had been questioned \u2013 but not arrested \u2013 at Manchester airport under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act after returning from holiday in Morocco.<\/p>\n

He said two officers at the airport had questioned him about Palestine Action, Iran and his financial situation, including his mortgage. He said he had been held for more than three hours, during which he was asked what he would do if someone next to him at the mosque had extreme views. Again, his electronic devices were taken away.<\/p>\n

He said the same two officers had told him to meet them at Starbucks in terminal 2 three days later, where they were \u201creally nice, apologetic, \u2018sorry you had to go through this\u2019\u201d and returned the devices they had taken at the airport.<\/p>\n

Sadiq, who said he was vocal about Palestine, has been on marches and gets leaflets and stickers printed for pro-Palestinian groups and cultural exhibitions. Last year, the Manchester Evening News reported that miniature Israeli flags had been stuck on the door of one of his cafes, apparently because of his support for Palestine.<\/p>\n

During the talk at Ashton-under-Lyne police station, he said the officers also told him they would protect him and his family. They said they did not need an immediate decision and gave him a number to text.<\/p>\n

He said he had decided to go public to ensure his safety, given he was not taking up the offer. His neighbours had stopped talking to him after his arrest last year, he added. \u201cI feel like I need protection from the police rather than anything else. It\u2019s scary that I\u2019ve got this marker on my passport for doing nothing. If they\u2019ve got something on me, then charge me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon Pook, of Robert Lizar solicitors, said he was making formal representations to GMP on Sadiq\u2019s behalf and described the force\u2019s conduct as reminiscent of that of the British state during the Northern Ireland Troubles.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200bWe\u2019re unhappy that he was put in that position and offered inducements to work for the state,\u201d said Pook. \u201cWas the intention always to use the schedule 7 [stop] in order to offer the inducement? If that is the true intention, schedule 7 was used unlawfully, because it\u2019s got to be used where you believe somebody may be involved in or in an act of preparation of terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

GMP said it was unable to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cafe owner claims police offered him financial benefits and to turn a \u201cblind eye\u201d to certain low-level…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-611742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}