Shams Sadiq, a 51-year-old cafe owner from Didsbury, Manchester, has alleged that police offered him financial benefits and a promise to turn a "blind eye" to certain low-level offences if he agreed to inform on the banned direct action group Palestine Action.
Mr Sadiq, who owns two cafes in Manchester, said the inducements were made when he went to collect electronic devices that had been confiscated during his arrest last year in connection with alleged offences relating to Palestine Action. He said that when he attended Ashton-under-Lyne police station on 15 May, two officers he believed were from Operation Wildflower – a response by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and others to the war on Gaza – asked to speak to him "man to man".
The officers told him they knew he was "fully involved" with the group but would not be charging him over the 2024 arrest. "They said to me: 'We need your help. Look, there's benefits in helping us,'" Mr Sadiq recalled. He said they offered assistance with his taxes and told him, "We're not saying you can go out and commit a serious crime but we can turn a blind eye to certain things." When he asked about speeding tickets, they replied, "We don't care about speeding."
Mr Sadiq said he understood "help" to mean informing on Palestine Action and assisting the police in identifying Muslims with "extreme views" at his local mosque, as they noted he was "quite respected" in his community. Four days before the meeting, he had been questioned at Manchester airport under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act after returning from Morocco. He was held for more than three hours and asked about Palestine Action, Iran, his mortgage and what he would do if someone at the mosque held extreme views. His devices were taken, but later returned at a Starbucks meeting in terminal 2.
Mr Sadiq, who describes himself as vocal about Palestine and has participated in marches, remains under investigation for a 2024 alleged offence. He said he had decided to go public to protect himself, adding: "I feel like I need protection from the police rather than anything else... If they've got something on me, then charge me." His solicitor, Simon Pook of Robert Lizar, has made formal representations to GMP, describing the force's conduct as reminiscent of the British state during the Northern Ireland Troubles and questioning whether schedule 7 had been used lawfully to make the offer.
