Mohammed Alfatih, 40, also known as Mohammed Naim, was convicted at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday of unlawfully wounding a bailiff, by a majority of 10 to 2, and of two counts of possessing a bladed article and criminal damage. The Mail has reported that he was a bodyguard to Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. He was granted asylum in 2015, when Theresa May was home secretary in David Cameron’s government, and British citizenship in 2020, when Priti Patel was home secretary under Boris Johnson. A German arrest warrant alleges he stored five handguns in Vienna to prepare attacks on Israeli or Jewish facilities in Germany — a plot he has not been tried for.
The Mail reported from the trial that debt enforcement officer Kevin Bucknall was stabbed through his vehicle window and suffered a 1–2cm cut to the head. Prosecutor Matthew Brook KC said Alfatih went towards the van with two kitchen knives and a rock, smashed the driver’s window, and lunged with one of the knives. Alfatih claimed self-defence.
He told the jury he was born in Germany, grew up in Gaza, and arrived in the UK in 2014. The Mail says he “is thought to have entered Britain illegally” and was granted asylum in 2015 “after citing persecution by Egypt.” He claimed asylum in 2014 and was granted it in 2015. A Berlin indictment says he “served in Haniyeh’s personal security team around 2006,” and that he “is also the son of senior Hamas member Bassem Naim,” also spelled Basem. Those claims were not put before the Birmingham jury.
The grants were Conservative Party decisions. May held the Home Office for the whole of 2015; Patel for the whole of 2020. No exact day has been published for either grant, and there is no document showing that a named minister personally approved the file. Chris Philp – the current shadow home secretary – was Minister for Immigration Compliance and Justice, a Home Office post whose published responsibilities included asylum, casework, and immigration enforcement.
This website has already set out how Conservative governments gave this man, then known as “Mr X,” asylum and citizenship. In September, as this website reported, Philp, now shadow home secretary, said: “There’s nothing any government can do about it, and that is precisely why we need to dismantle the entire legal system, come out of the ECHR.” The Conservatives were in government for both grants, and made no move to leave the ECHR in 14 years.
.@EllieHodgesxx and I discuss the story of the Hamas operative living in England since 2015.
How did he get here? A Tory government.
And who was responsible?
Kemi Badenoch’s newest shadow cabinet recruits.
— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) 28 September 2026
Separately, the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said a German arrest warrant issued on 16 October 2025 alleges that “Mohammed A.,” arrested in London on 3 November 2025, is a Hamas member who, in summer 2025, twice met Abed Al G. in Berlin, took five handguns and ammunition, “transported the weapons to Austria and stored them in Vienna,” and that “these actions served to prepare terrorist attacks on Israeli or Jewish facilities in Germany.” That is an allegation in an extradition request, not a British charge or conviction. It is a German warrant, executed “by way of legal assistance,” not a European Arrest Warrant. Extradition proceedings were stayed pending the Birmingham trial. This website earlier reported the Berlin arrests of Abed Al G. and others in the same network, before Alfatih was arrested.
A Home Office spokesman said: “While we do not routinely comment on individual cases or operational matters, we take all steps necessary at all times to protect the nation’s security.” There has been no report that Alfatih has been stripped of his citizenship. He will be sentenced on 11 January.
