A homeless 40-year-old Syrian man, Ahmed Ali Kasab, today claimed in court that he was beaten up by the police in an incident yesterday.

The man was taken to court this morning and accused of slightly injuring two policemen and damaging one of their mobile phones.

Speaking loudly in court through an interpreter after saying he could not hear from one ear, the man said he was ready to admit damaging the phone but would plead not guilty to the other charges.

Mr Kasab said he had been walking in the street smoking a cigarette when officers stopped him, spoke to him and assaulted him.

The police claimed the man was stopped on suspicion that he was smoking an illegal substance, and he became violent.

The court remanded him in custody since he has no fixed address.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.