The woman seriously injured in the Clapham chemical attack came to the UK seeking safety as an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, the Guardian has learned, with police offering a £20,000 reward for the arrest of the suspected attacker. The paper reported.
Abdul Ezzedi remains the target of a massive manhunt after Wednesday’s attack with a corrosive substance and has since remained on the run.
Ezzedi, also from Afghanistan, was granted asylum in the UK in 2018 despite being convicted of sex offenses and on the sex offenders register.
Former home secretary Suela Braverman and Priti Patel are seeking to use Ezzedi’s controversial asylum status to call for a crackdown on asylum seekers.
However, sources say the 31-year-old woman, who remains seriously ill in hospital, herself came to the UK seeking asylum status, but was admitted to have had a genuine fear of persecution in Afghanistan. It is believed that refugee status has been granted.
It added that she is believed to have arrived in the UK in 2016 following Mr Ezzedi, who was smuggled into the country in a truck.
Detectives said anyone who helped him on the run could be arrested and they believe someone may be hiding his whereabouts.
Commander John Sabel said Sunday that laboratory analysis showed the liquid used in the attack was “a highly concentrated corrosive substance, either liquid sodium hydroxide or liquid sodium carbonate.” said.
He said comparisons were being made with a container seized from Mr Ezzedi’s Newcastle home.
The injured woman, who Ezzedi had known for some time, suffered potentially life-changing injuries and is in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
Some sources say the woman and the suspect had some sort of relationship, but the two children, ages 8 and 3, who were with her at the time of the attack are not his.
Azedi said he was an ethnic Hazara when he tried to gain asylum, but the priest provided evidence that he attended church regularly and that his claim to be a Christian was genuine. , was finally approved on the third try by the appellate court.
Two of the sources added that Afghanistan was rated as extremely dangerous and Ezzedi would not be able to be deported once he entered the UK, even if all appeals failed.
Despite a massive search operation and a public appeal for information regarding his whereabouts, police have not confirmed any sightings of Ezzedi since Wednesday evening.
Sabel thanked the public for the calls already made and said: A reward of up to £20,000 is currently being offered for information leading to an arrest.
“We must warn anyone who is collaborating with Ezzedi to evade capture. Those who harbor or assist him will be arrested.
“Specialized detectives are stationed at our investigation desk 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and conduct investigations 24 hours a day.
“If you know where he is or have any information that could help, please call us now.”
Police on Sunday released new information about Ezzedi’s last known movements. He was last seen leaving Tower Hill Tube station at 9:33pm on Wednesday.
He changed trains in Victoria, arriving on the Victoria line at 9:10pm and departing on the eastbound District line at 9:16pm. Officers previously said the suspect was last seen on a southbound Victoria Line train from King’s Cross at 9pm, 95 minutes after the Clapham attack.
The woman’s daughters were also injured in the attack, but their injuries were not as serious as initially thought. According to city officials, the younger child was rescued by her partner, a financial worker in his 50s, who ran out of the house after hearing the screams.
he told the Sunday Times The perpetrator tried again to throw the 3-year-old to the ground. “That’s when my partner lunged and tackled him, grabbing his leg in the process and causing him to fall to the ground like a rugby tackle.”
Witnesses said the man suffered an arm injury and his partner suffered burns and possible permanent damage to his eye.
As police appealed for new information and announced rewards, Darius Nasimi, from the charity Afghanistan and Central Asia Association, appealed directly to Ezzedi to surrender.
“I want you to go to the police station immediately,” he said. “You are seriously injured and need to be seen, but more importantly, do the right thing and turn yourself in to the police. This has been going on long enough.”
The association’s founder, Dr. Nuoralhak Nasimi, said he had no previous contact with Ezzedi or the victims of Wednesday’s attack.
Contributed to the Sunday TelegraphSuella Braverman said that while she was home secretary, she “discovered that churches across the country were facilitating an industrial scale of fake asylum claims”.
Priti Patel told the Telegraph. Church leaders engaged in “political activity” and claimed religious groups were supporting asylum seekers’ cases “without merit.”
It is unknown which church he attended. The Church of England said it had no record of him in its books and that the Home Office vets asylum seekers.
