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Apology demanded as Yahyah Farroukh freed without charge

The employer of a Syrian refugee wrongfully arrested for “terrorism” demanded an apology from the police yesterday.

Suleman Sarwar, who manages the Aladdins chicken shop in Hounslow, said there had been “abuse, threats, anger, and hatred,” since Yahyah Farroukh was arrested at his place of work last Saturday over the Parsons Green Tube train bombing.

When Mr Farroukh’s mother heard of his arrest, she suffered a heart attack and reportedly remains in a critical condition in a hospital in Egypt after collapsing from shock.

Mr Farroukh, 21, was released without charge on Thursday.

Mr Sarwar is asking for a “fully unreserved apology” from the Metropolitan Police, saying: “The investigation brought Yahyah, his friends, family, place of employment and the wider Muslim community under scrutiny and indignity.

“Once again, the community has received backlash and animosity from the public.”

A spokesperson for anti-Islamophobia campaign group Mend said: “There is no justification for attacking the shop or the owner.

“Mr Farroukh’s release shows that there is no evidence against him to bring charges, so any reactions are unwarranted.”

Mend figures show that Islamophobic hate crimes have increased by around 17 per cent since last year.

In 2016, there were 1,800 such crimes, while there have been 1,260 so far this year.

Met Commissioner Cressida Dick said the bomb on the District line train, which failed to properly detonate but still injured 30 people, had been “packed with shrapnel.”

Eighteen-year-old Ahmed Hassan was charged yesterday with attempted murder and possessing explosives over the attack.

Mr Hassan, of Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, also faces a charge of using a chemical compound known as TATP to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.

He was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on October 13.

Police are continuing to question four people, including a 17-year-old boy arrested in Thornton Heath, south London.

The investigation has also led to the arrest of two men aged 25 and 30 in Newport, south Wales, and an 18-year-old man detained at the port of Dover, while searches at Mr Hassan’s address in Sunbury-on-Thames, another in Thornton Heath and two in Newport are continuing.

A 48-year-old man arrested in Newport has been released without charge.

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