Troubled and tortured life of the man who escaped from Hell
HE was shot dead last weekend by armed police in Scotland’s biggest city. But the extraordinary journey of Badreddin Abadlla Adam, which ended when he went on a knife rampage in a Glasgow hotel, began more than three years ago and 5,000 miles away. From the poverty and tribal warfare of his native Sudan, he travelled to Libya – where he claimed he was imprisoned and tortured – before fleeing to Europe.
Before reaching Scotland, he moved between Germany and Belgium, slept rough in Paris and was housed in a notorious Irish Republican area of Belfast.
The testimony of friends and fellow asylum seekers has shone a light on the 28-year-old’s movements as he stowed away in lorries and even the baggage compartment of a coach – but also painted a conflicting picture of his mental state.
While some found him a quiet, thoughtful and friendly young man who took carpentry classes and even practised flower arranging, others witnessed a soul increasingly troubled by his experiences.
Musaab Ibrahim al-Hassani, a refugee whom Adam met in Germany, said: ‘We cannot believe what happened to him. He was the most calm of people I have met; the calmest amongst all of us.’
By contrast, a month before the stabbings, another friend saw a deterioration in his condition, saying: ‘I felt he was ill, that he was not well… that he was at times unstable and had reached some mental instability after everything he had been through.’
Adam was born into a Muslim family in Gedaref, a farming community known for sesame production on Sudan’s southeastern border. In recent years, it has increasingly been hit by drought and both tribal and criminal warfare.
He left Sudan around 2017. One friend, a fellow asylum seeker, said:
‘He, like many of us, came from Sudan, a country torn by wars. Our choices were limited.’
ANOTHER friend, whom he first met in France and then travelled to Ireland with, said: ‘From what I gathered, he had a very bad time in Libya where he was held in a prison for over one year… beaten and tortured. ‘They asked for huge amounts of money from his family for his release. I don’t know how he eventually managed to free himself from there. His family could not have paid – they were poor.’
Crossing the Mediterranean, Adam then spent time in Germany, where he met fellow asylum seeker Mr al-Hassani, with whom he was temporarily housed.
Mr al-Hassani described Adam as a kind man who cooked and cleaned for the other asylum seekers, but spent a lot of time alone. He said: ‘He observed his Islam very moderately. For sure, he was not a radical. In
Germany he took some carpentry courses as well as flower arranging.’
However, Adam appeared unable to settle. Another friend said: ‘He was always like miles away, staring into the distance, his mind elsewhere. I used to sense sometimes that he was a very, very sad man.’
On leaving Germany, Adam moved through Belgium and France where, he told his friend he ended up sleeping on the streets in winter.
Next, Adam smuggled himself into Ireland. With him was Abas Adam – another young Sudanese man. Abas said: ‘Three of us were hidden in a compartment under a truck.
‘For three days we travelled with no food or water. It was exhausting. On the final leg of the journey he was very upset and stressed. We all faced problems and issues, but they impacted him more.’
After being held together they were later separated. Abas said: ‘He didn’t know English and was sent to a city and area where there were no Arabs and no one spoke his language.
‘Six times he applied and asked to be transferred back with us, but to no avail.’ A solicitor’s letter seen by this newspaper shows that in December 2019, Adam was living on the Upper Falls Road in Belfast, an area notorious for sectarian conflict.
Soon, said Abas, things began to unravel. He said: ‘I felt he was ill, that he was not well… that he was at times unstable and had reached some mental instability after everything he had been through.
‘He told me he felt his life was meaningless, that he felt he’d failed.’
He added: ‘One day he got himself into the baggage compartment of a coach that brought him from Northern Ireland to Scotland.’
But by that time he had already resolved to try to return home to his family. Abas said: ‘When he called me from Scotland he told me that he felt he would rather be in Sudan with all the problems that brought, than continue here.’
However, amid the Covid pandemic Adam was housed in Glasgow’s Park Inn among other asylum seekers.
Summing up the feelings of those Adam met prior to that fateful day, Mr al-Hassani said: ‘We are all shocked by the news, still unable to believe it.’