Toothache ‘terrorist’
Asylum seeker built fake bomb – as he couldn’t see a dentist
AN asylum seeker in agony from severe toothache who made a fake suicide vest and demanded police ‘release me from this life’ was jailed yesterday.
Meysam Kordi, 32, contacted officers and falsely claimed to have 3kg of explosives strapped to himself, a court heard.
The Iranian national said he wanted police marksmen to come and shoot him, saying he would put the keys through the door to help them enter.
A massive emergency operation was launched with roads around his home in Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, cordoned off.
A school was put on lockdown and bomb disposal teams were scrambled to the scene.
But after negotiators persuaded him to walk out of his house and remove the vest, it was found to be completely harmless.
His device consisted merely of masking tape, aerosol cans and cardboard tubing.
Yesterday a court heard Kordi had been driven to his bizarre stunt by desperation over pain in his teeth, from which he had been suffering for six months. His lawyer insisted it was ‘a cry for help’.
As an asylum seeker he was unable to acquire the paperwork to enable him to see a dentist, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester was told. Jailing him for a year after he admitted making a bomb hoax and malicious communications, a judge told Kordi it was important to send out a message of deterrence.
Kordi – who had arrived in the UK in May 2018 – rang police on January 16 and was put through to an interpreter.
Prosecutor Duncan Wilcock said he ‘claimed he had attached 3kg of explosives to himself’ and wanted armed police to attend. Demanding they ‘release me from this life’, he said he wanted the marksmen to shoot him dead.
‘Several firearms officers were allocated to the incident and other officers cordoned off a number of roads,’ Mr Wilcock added.
‘Shops, businesses and homes had to be evacuated and a lot of public resources were used in the incident.’ Kordi later told his lawyer: ‘I bitterly regret my actions.’
In mitigation, James Preece said: ‘The reasons for all that desperation were the problems he was suffering with his teeth.’
Kordi was also frustrated with progress on his asylum application, he added.
The court heard that Kordi had now seen a dentist who had removed ‘a significant number of his back teeth’ which had caused him problems with eating.
Sentencing him, Judge Bernadette Baxter told Kordi: ‘ Your status as an asylum seeker made it difficult for you to access the necessary treatment – however, that doesn’t justify what you did.’
Highlighting the vast emergency response his hoax sparked, she said: ‘Only an immediate sentence of imprisonment can be justified both as a punishment and more particularly as a deterrent to you and others.’
‘Release me from this life’