London attack victim dies,
AN ELDERLY cancer and Parkinson’s disease sufferer badly injured in a vicious robbery that sent shockwaves through the UK Turkish Cypriot community has died nearly five months later.
Ahmet Dobran, who was 82 and had lived in East Ham for most of his life, passed away in the early hours of Monday.
The retired dry cleaner, who walked with a stick, was left bedridden with three fractured vertebrae after being set upon by three men who grabbed him by the neck, dragged him to the ground, punched him repeatedly and robbed him of cash and jewellery in Newham, east London, on August 27 last year. Friends of Mr Dobran told Cyprus Today at the time the London Turkish Cypriot community was “in absolute shock” at the incident which detectives described as “beyond comprehension”.
The Spurs fan and father of four — one of whom lives in North Cyprus — was spoken of as “harmless” and “a charming, lovely gentleman”.
Police, who have previously released CCTV images of three men they want to trace in connection with the robbery, this week issued a fresh appeal for information.
Detective Inspector Iain Wallace, of Newham CID said: “Mr Dobran was hospitalised following the attack in August and had been in an induced coma for several weeks until he was recently introduced to a nursing home. Sadly Mr Dobran’s health deteriorated soon after and he was taken to hospital and passed away.
“His family are utterly devastated and, whilst we are unable to ascertain at this time that he died as a result of the attack, we do know that at the very least it may have aggravated other existing conditions. We await the results of the post-mortem to determine this.
“Whilst one of the men has now been identified and charged we are still keen to trace two other men who are still outstanding. Someone knows who these men are and I would urge them to come forward to stop them from using the same level of violence on another vulnerable person.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crimestoppers anonymously via 0800 555 111. Information may also be tweeted to police @MetCC.