‘It’s traumatic’, says terror suspect’s horrified father
THE father of terror suspect Ali Harbi Ali is undergoing treatment for a heart condition and says he is ‘traumatised’ by his son’s arrest.
Harbi Ali Kullane, who served as a spokesman for a former prime minister of Somalia, confided: ‘I’m not OK, I’m traumatised. It’s not something I expected or even dreamed of.’
He added: ‘We are going through an unprecedented and horrific situation.’
The 61-year-old’s phone has been taken away for analysis by Met officers who are grilling his son.
The suspect, 25, was arrested at the Southend church where MP Sir David Amess was stabbed to death during his constituency surgery. Police have been searching three homes linked to him, including a council maisonette where he is thought to have lived with his father. It stands on a street where houses fetch £2million in Camden, north London. The other properties are a house in Haringey, north London, and one in Croydon, south London, where he is thought to have grown up.
A neighbour said: ‘He worked for the health service – he told me so – but in what capacity I don’t know.
‘I think one of his sisters also works for the NHS. They’re a lovely family – it’s such a shock Ali has been arrested for such a terrible thing. His mum and sisters helped my wife and I during lockdown. They got my shopping and medication. They’d do anything to help.’ Police are working on the theory that Ali – whose sister is thought to live in Southend – was a ‘lone wolf’ inspired by African Islamist terror group al-Shabaab.
They believe he planned the attack for more than a week and took a train to the Essex seaside town to carry it out.
Ali’s father, who splits his time between London and Kenya, fiercely opposes the current Somalian president. He also criticised US president Joe Biden’s exit from Afghanistan, claiming he had fed liberty ‘to the wolves’. He is said to be having treatment at London’s St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Met officers have been given until Friday to bring charges against his son.
The findings of a post-mortem on the killed MP are yet to be released.