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PC Amar Hussain jailed for false terror kidnap claim | PC Amar Hussain jailed for false terror kidnap claim |
(35 minutes later) | |
A policeman who claimed terrorists were going to kidnap a fellow officer has been jailed for seven years. | |
Amar Tasaddiq Hussain, 29, made a hoax 999 call in which he claimed an officer with the West Midlands force would be abducted by a radical Muslim with links to the so-called Islamic State. | |
As a result, all officers had to call in to report they had got home safely. | |
The false call was made because of a personal grudge, Stafford Crown Court heard. | |
Judge Michael Chambers QC criticised the former officer, from Yardley, Birmingham, for showing no remorse and pleading not guilty in the face of overwhelming evidence. | |
'We were told not to wear our uniforms' | |
More on this story and others from Birmingham and the Black Country | More on this story and others from Birmingham and the Black Country |
Two other Birmingham men, unemployed Adil Bashir, 26, and 31-year-old tutor Muhammed Ali Sheikh, were convicted of the same charges of perverting the course of justice and were each sentenced to three years in prison. | |
'Severe threat level' | |
The men's trial had heard how, in an unprecedented move, all on the West Midlands force had to call in to report getting home safely due to the threat, which was made on 8 December 2014. | The men's trial had heard how, in an unprecedented move, all on the West Midlands force had to call in to report getting home safely due to the threat, which was made on 8 December 2014. |
The call had been made in the hope it would discredit someone Hussain held a grudge against, an official within Dawat-E-Islami, a peaceful Muslim prayer group. | |
West Midlands Police said the call "sparked an unprecedented police response and subsequent investigation which led to a suspect being arrested within 24 hours by counter-terrorism detectives. | |
"The call came at a time when the national terrorism threat level was severe." | |
The Police Federation said the effect of the hoax call was "widespread and long lasting" and affected all employees and their families. | |
Hussain had tried to access police logs that had been created following a call made in September and the kidnap call in December. Expert voice analysis of those calls to police revealed they were made by Bashir and Hussain respectively. | |
In September, police were given information that a forced marriage was taking place at an address in Moseley, Birmingham. Officers went to the address but decided the alert had been a hoax. |