UK suspect: Cops beat me

2005-08-04 21:39

London - A 52-year-old Ethiopian refugee detained for six days in connection with the London bombings claimed in an interview published on Thursday that British police beat and humiliated him as he was arrested.

Girma Belay, a Christian who had lived in London for 12 years, was arrested on July 22, a day after a failed bomb attack on the city, which attempted to repeat the carnage of two weeks earlier, when four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 others.

Belay said he was in a friend's flat in Stockwell, an area where police had made a string of arrests linked to the attacks, when officers burst in.

Belay said he was forced to lie on the floor with a gun aimed at him before being ordered to strip naked, at which point police pointed at his genitals and mocked him.

'I was held against the wall'

He said: "I was completely naked and then one guy - I will never forget him, he was not in uniform - he started punching me.

"I was held against the wall, I was naked. I kept asking, 'Why is he hitting me?' and he said 'shut up' and punched me again. He punched and kicked me like he was a boxer training on his bag.

"Then someone intervened and the punching stopped."

The reported that Belay was held at London's high security Paddington Green police station for six days of questioning before being released, with one officer telling him "Sorry mate - wrong place, wrong time".

He said the Ethiopian now suffered flashbacks and was seeking a formal apology from police.

- AFP