Four plead guilty to burning ambulances owned by London Jewish charity
Times of Israel · LC · trust 23/100
Four young men admitted in a UK court on Friday that they were behind a March arson attack in London on ambulances owned by the Jewish charity Hatzola that were parked at a synagogue.
British nationals Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and British-Pakistani Saif Ali, 18, all pleaded guilty to criminal damage linked to the March 23 attack in the Golders Green neighborhood, home to a significant Jewish population.
Three of the men set fire to the ambulances, while the fourth waited in a getaway car. The arsonists destroyed four ambulance vehicles, causing damage valued at £1 million ($1.4 million).
Iqbal, Khan and Atshatshi entered their pleas by video link, while Ali, wearing a white shirt, was present in the dock at London’s Old Bailey central criminal court.
The men were remanded in custody and are expected to be sentenced in spring 2027. Defense lawyers denied charges that the four defendants had any “terrorism” connections to groups proscribed in the UK.
A fifth defendant, Subhan Ahmed, 18, pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender and is due to go on trial at the Old Bailey in January.
At a previous hearing, prosecution lawyer Emma Harraway told the court there was strong evidence that the attack on the ambulances was “a premeditated and targeted attack against the Jewish community.”
The arson was one of a spate of attacks on Jewish communities during the early weeks of the war that the US and Israel launched against Iran on February 28.
In Golders Green, a terrorist also stabbed two Jewish men in late April, and was later charged with attempting to murder them as well as a fellow member of the Somali community.
An Iran-linked group known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyah (HAYI) had previously claimed multiple attacks, including the destruction of the ambulances.
The UK government has announced plans to ban HAYI, also known as the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, as a national security threat.
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