The first photos have emerged of a teenage asylum seeker in hospital with serious injuries after he was attacked in Croydon on Friday, as police announced that they were still hunting three “key individuals” in connection with the crime.
Kurdish Iranian student Reker Ahmed, 17, was beaten and kicked by a group of up to 30 people while waiting at a bus stop in Croydon, south London, with two friends. Thirteen people have been charged in connection with the attack, and police are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
Photos shared by the Kurdish Solidarity Campaign show Ahmed in his bed at King’s College hospital, London, with two black eyes and a line for a drip in his arm. His injuries include a fractured skull, eye socket and spine and a blood clot on the brain, and his brother said he did not recognise him when he first visited the hospital.
Hadi Ahmed told reporters: “I was just hugging him, saying, ‘You’re my brother’… I didn’t recognise him as well when the first time I see him … He didn’t have any affection. He didn’t want to hug me. It was horrible. I started crying.”
Croydon’s Kurdish community is planning a demonstration on Saturday in protest at the attack. On Wednesday, community leaders, police and local Kurdish people held a vigil at the Goat pub, near the site of the attack. Kurds from around the UK are planning to join them, a friend of Ahmed’s who gave his name as Farhad told the Guardian. “Kurds are infuriated because Reker was attacked by too many people – he was just by himself,” he said. “On Saturday, we want to gather near where the attack took place.”
A total of 16 people have been arrested and 13, including a 15-year-old boy, charged with offences including grievous bodily harm and violent disorder.
Liam Neylen, 19, Ben Harman, 20, Ellie Leite, 19, James Neves, 22, Kyran Evans, 23, Daryl Davis, 20, Danyelle Davis, 24, Barry Potts, 20, George Walder, 20, Jack Walder, 24, a 17-year-old girl, a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy have been charged in connection with the incident.
Speaking from the scene, Ch Supt Jeff Boothe said: “We have arrested 16 people, 13 have been charged. There are three more key individuals believed to have played a part, and we are appealing for people to continue to come forward.” Extra officers had been deployed to patrol the area to try to reassure residents after Friday’s attack, he added.
Family friend Abdullah Abdullah said Ahmed’s face was “black and blue” when he went to see him on Tuesday. “He was very bad, his face had been smashed very badly,” he said.
Rebaz Mohammed, a Kurdish community leader, demanded justice for the teenager. “We’re feeling very disappointed, but the police and community are all coming together,” he said.
“We want everyone to cooperate with the police and we want justice and care for Reker. It will be with him for the rest of his life. We’re concentrating on the best care for this kid. There’s not enough support for asylum seekers who come over, especially young people in London. They need help to integrate,” he added.
The Conservative MP for Croydon Central, Gavin Barwell said: “The police response sends a very clear message to the community and anyone else tempted to behave like this: this won’t be tolerated.”
Ayer Ata, a researcher at London South Bank University, attended Wednesday’s vigil. “Local officials are taking Friday’s incident very seriously, and this morning a police commander attended the vigil who could speak Kurdish,” he told the Guardian. “It was the first time I was seeing a UK police force speaking Kurdish. It showed that the authorities are also taking the incident seriously.”
The attack on Ahmed had touched a nerve among Kurds in Croydon, Ata said. “People are worried for such a crime to be repeated. We don’t want it to set a precedent. Reker was one of us, related to us by blood, and people here are emotional about what happened to him.”
“People in Croydon generally have a good relationship with asylum seekers and it would be a shame for an incident like this to cast a shadow over that,” added Ata, who is Kurdish and has worked with many Kurdish asylum seekers over the years. “We don’t want the Kurdish community to think about revenge.”
Croydon borough councillor Tony Newman branded the attack “utterly horrific” and said there was a “real sense of outrage” across the community.
The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, was also in Croydon. He said: “Reker Ahmed came to this country seeking refuge and safety, but last Friday he got the exact opposite. He was set upon violently in an attack by people here locally, he was very, very badly hurt, and thankfully is starting to recover.”
He added the attack “doesn’t represent Britain or Croydon”, and said: “When something like this does happen, we must do everything we can possibly do to apprehend those that were responsible for this appalling and unacceptable crime.”
