Met Police Apologise for Wrongly Arresting Christian Who Was Attacked by Islamists at Speakers’ Corner

Hatun Tash in an undated file photo. Courtesy of Hatun Tash/Christian Concern

The Metropolitan Police has admitted it “fell below standards” following two wrongful arrests of a female Christian evangelist who was abused by Islamists at Speakers’ Corner in London.

The Met has paid £10,000 ($11,250) in damages and apologised to evangelical Christian preacher Hatun Tash who was wrongly arrested twice at Speakers’ Corner.

A former Muslim, Tash, who regularly debates Islam and the Quran at Speakers’ Corner, sometimes wearing a Charlie Hebdo Prophet Muhammad T-shirt, is the director of the ministry Defend Christ Critique Islam (DCCI).

She challenged the arrests on the grounds of wrongful arrest and unlawful imprisonment. She was defended by the Christian Legal Centre and donated the payout to them.

The Free Speech Union has also supported Tash’s cause, writing to the Acting Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Stephen House, asking him to “justify this appalling treatment and, if he could not, to apologise to Hatun.”

Speakers’ Corner

Based in central London’s Hyde Park, Speakers’ Corner has been a traditional site for public speeches and debates since the mid-1800s. George Orwell, Karl Marx, and Vladimir Lenin are listed among the historic orators there.

In 2020, police officers used coronavirus regulations to detain Tash for 23 hours after she encouraged officers not to hinder her right to free speech.

In May 2021, while Tash was debating, she was assaulted by a hostile group of Islamic men, with some calling for her death. In video footage, when police officers ordered the Islamic group to leave Hyde Park, one told the police to “go away.”

When the same officers told Tash to leave the park, they told her she would be arrested if she argued with them.

Tash was then taken into police custody and later interviewed under caution and held in custody for 24 hours before being released, with the police taking no further action.

She has repeatedly been assaulted at Speakers’ Corner. In July 2021, Tash was assaulted by an Islamist, who slashed her in the arm and face with a knife. The man who carried out the attack sprinted away. No arrests have been made and a knife was found near the scene of the attack.

Police Inaction

Tash, who said more must be done to properly deal with Islamic violence and intimidation at Speakers’ Corner, told The Epoch Times that she “wasn’t satisfied with the apology” as she felt that police are still “doing the same thing.”

“The teaching of Islam isn’t complementary to British society,” she said, adding that she thinks police deal with intimidation just by “shutting down the opposition.”

In a statement, she said: “Police inaction and fear has led to mobs being encouraged to silence, threaten and to even try to kill me. It is heartbreaking that we live in a society where police do not want to arrest a Muslim for fear of being called Islamophobic.”

In a letter (pdf), Inspector Andy O’Donnell of the Directorate of Professional Standards, Civil Actions Investigation Unit, apologised for both the 2020 and 2021 arrests.

“Whilst the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] constantly strives to maintain the highest professional standards, incidents occasionally arise when the level of service falls below that standard. I have considered the background to your claim and am satisfied that on these occasions the level of service did fall below the requisite standard,” he said.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to you for the distress that you have suffered as a consequence of these incidents. I hope that settlement of this claim and this recognition of the impact of what happened will enable you to put these incidents behind you,” added O’Donnell.

“This pay-out to Hatun is a rare admission by the police that they got it wrong,” said Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre.

“Hatun is well known at Speakers’ Corner yet it is she that has been repeatedly silenced or removed by the police because she challenges the religious ideology of Islam,” she said.

“Not satisfied with hounding her out of Speakers’ Corner an attempt has been made on her life for which there has still been no arrest,” added Williams.