By Saqib Deshmukh in Justice for Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah
PRESS RELEASE – for immediate release 5.1.12
Shocket Aslam was stopped by the police after leaving a petrol station on the M6 without paying for £20 worth of petrol. During this, despite being disabled and being in a wheelchair he was attacked by a number of officers with batons/koshes and tasered and was subsequently denied medical treatment when he was held at a police station to Stafford. He had gone to Manchester from High Wycombe with a friend to pick up a car.
On the 31st of December 2011 Shocket Aslam was driving on the M6 motorway in Staffordshire when 3-5 police vehicles together with a helicopter apprehended him after he had left a petrol station without paying. As soon as he saw the police coming he stopped his vehicle on the hard shoulder and as officers approached aggressively and asked him to put his hands up and get out of the car he confirmed that he was disabled. Two officers had tasers aimed at him in the driver side and on the passenger side as well, and a police officer on his side smashed the window and repeatedly hit with him a kosh. He protested and again tried to explain that he was disabled and it was hard for him to get it out but he was then tasered from behind in the shoulder and dragged out of the car by 5/6 officers. Two of these were trying to pull his arms around his back and his face was held on the floor. One officer saw the wheelchair and stated this to the other officers but they continued to hoist him out and dragged him along the ground and threw head first into a police car. When Shocket asked for help and water he was sworn at violently by the officers and wished happy New Year by them! He was shaking and shivering at this time and couldn’t speak properly after being tasered. He asked to be taken to hospital and for some water but was again refused and was even threatened with a taser again. He was taken to Watling Police station in Stafford and was held overnight in an interview room (not a cell) and no medical treatment was given and his requests for his medication for his condition which was in the car were ignored. His requests for a cushion to support himself as he suffers from bedsores was also ignored. He was bleeding from a cut in his forehead and his nose yet he was only given a tissue to stop this. He was still shivering and in shock and asked for a blanket but was only given a jumper to wear. He was interviewed by the police at 2pm approximately the next day and despite being charged with driving a vehicle without the owner’s consent (he had come back from Manchester in two vehicles – with the friend driving the new one and Shocket driving his) the police did not contact his friend to verify the situation. He was subsequently released at 3pm on the 1st of January 2012.
The Justice for Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah campaign together with Shocket and his family would like to know the following:
Why excessive force was used and why was he tasered when he stopped his vehicle, co-operated and offered no resistance?
Why his disability (he is a wheelchair user and has no use of his legs at all) was not taken account in how the police handled him?
Why medical treatment was withheld (especially after use of a taser) and no help given to him immediately after he sustained his injuries at the hands of the police and overnight in the custody of Staffordshire Police?
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