Knife attack suspect in court, riots rock Northern Ireland overnight
by Paul Godfrey · UPIJune 10 (UPI) -- A 30-year-old refugee from Sudan appeared in court in Belfast on Wednesday charged with the attempted murder of a local man on Monday that sparked a day and night of anti-immigrant rioting, arson and violence across Northern Ireland.
Hadi Alodid appeared before magistrates via video link from prison as he was accused of attempting to murder Steven Ogilvy, threatening to kill a National Health Service radiographer and possession of a knife. He was remanded in custody until his next court appearance in four weeks.
Police said Alodid entered the United Kingdom in 2023 and was granted refugee status.
It was unclear how he arrived but the United Kingdom's only land border is between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which is part of the European Union, with free movement between Ireland and the north dating back decades.
The court heard that Ogilvy lost his left eye in the attack and was also being treated for neck and back injuries in the hospital.
The incident triggered protests on Tuesday that turned violent with houses, cars and a bus torched in clashes in Belfast and other towns across Northern Ireland in which two police officers were injured.
Some of those involved were masked men.
In north Belfast, emergency services led people to safety from burning homes, an African family in Belfast had to move after their windows were smashed and a Ukrainian teen had to flee after the front door of her family's home caught fire.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it had drafted in 200 police reinforcements from other parts of the country amid claims by Chief Constable Jon Boutcher that the police department lacked sufficient resources to cope with disorder on the scale that occurred.
Boutcher said Tuesday night's violence was an "act of self harm by the people involved" and pleaded with the public to "please, please please let the criminal justice process take its course."
He said the violence was an "insult to the victim" and all those involved, including the member of the public who "courageously" risked their lives to stop the attack by the suspect.
The minister in the central government in London responsible for the country, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, condemned what he said was inexcusable "thuggery."
"Nothing can justify the violence that we saw on the streets of Northern Ireland last night with masked thugs. It is utterly shameful," said Benn who dismissed organizers' claims they were defending their community.
Michelle O'Neill, leader of the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly, called it "outright thuggery."
Democratic Unionist Party leader Gavin Robinson, added his voice to the condemnation but said that people were right to be concerned about the asylum system, given the suspect in Monday night's attack had traveled via the Irish Republic and at least one other safe country to get to Northern Ireland.
Claire Hanna, Social Democratic and Labour Party leader and a Westminster MP for Belfast South and Mid Down, told the BBC that what had occurred was race-based mob violence.
"What you're seeing is a race-based pogrom. We are seeing men going door to door asking to get the foreigners out based exclusively on the color of their skin. It's not based on what they're contributing to society, what their status here is and it's terrifying for people in Belfast who want this sort of politics to be far beyond them," she said, referencing three decades of historic sectarian violence in Northern Ireland during "the troubles."
Protests were also held on the British mainland in Southampton, Edinburgh, Ayr and Glasgow where two police officers and three members of the public were injured during disorder.
In a statement issued via their legislative assembly member, Phillip Brett of the DUP, Ogilvy's family appealed for calm and said they didn't want what had happened to him to be used to justify violence and stressed the "valuable contribution" immigrants made to the country.
"We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility."
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Troops in landing craft approach Omaha Beach on D-Day in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history and turned the tide of World War II. Photo by UPI | License Photo