07/02/2006
'Suicide bomber' protestor arrested
A drug dealer who dressed as a suicide bomber to protest over cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad has been returned to prison today.
Bedfordshire Police arrested Omar Khayam, 22, on Tuesday. It has emerged that he is a convicted drug dealer, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2002 for possessing cocaine and heroin. However, he was released on license last year.
Khayam had dressed as a suicide bomber at a demonstration at the Danish embassy in London to protest against the cartoons, which had first been published in a Danish newspaper.
Downing Street had condemned the actions of some of the protestors at the London demonstrations - some of whom had held placards glorifying the terror attacks of September 11 and July 7 - as "completely unacceptable".
In Bedford yesterday, joined by local Labour MP Patrick Hall, Khayam made a statement to the press in which he apologised for his actions. He admitted that it was "wrong, unjustified and insensitive" to protest dressed as a suicide bomber.
However, protests escalated throughout the Middle East in the past week, as a number of European newspapers reprinted the cartoons.
At least five people are believed to have been killed during protests in Afghanistan, while another person was killed in Somalia.
Danish embassies and consulates have been the focus of the protests and the Danish government was forced to issue travel notices advising against travel to several Middle Eastern countries.
(KMcA/SP)
Bedfordshire Police arrested Omar Khayam, 22, on Tuesday. It has emerged that he is a convicted drug dealer, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2002 for possessing cocaine and heroin. However, he was released on license last year.
Khayam had dressed as a suicide bomber at a demonstration at the Danish embassy in London to protest against the cartoons, which had first been published in a Danish newspaper.
Downing Street had condemned the actions of some of the protestors at the London demonstrations - some of whom had held placards glorifying the terror attacks of September 11 and July 7 - as "completely unacceptable".
In Bedford yesterday, joined by local Labour MP Patrick Hall, Khayam made a statement to the press in which he apologised for his actions. He admitted that it was "wrong, unjustified and insensitive" to protest dressed as a suicide bomber.
However, protests escalated throughout the Middle East in the past week, as a number of European newspapers reprinted the cartoons.
At least five people are believed to have been killed during protests in Afghanistan, while another person was killed in Somalia.
Danish embassies and consulates have been the focus of the protests and the Danish government was forced to issue travel notices advising against travel to several Middle Eastern countries.
(KMcA/SP)
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