What the Filton 24 case did to one family

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]They just did not imprison my children, but they imprisoned the future of my family actually. I was begging to them that please don't kill me. Don't kill my children. I'm joined on the Chrispin Frithoff show by Samina Naz, who's the mother of Kesser Zura, who we know from the hunger striking, um and also Salam Mahmud, who is one of the Feltham 24. So, two of the Feltham 24.

[00:00:32]You're the mother of two of the Feltham 24. Extraordinary story.

[00:00:36]Um, I'm just wondering, I mean, just to start off with, could you tell us about your family and the values that guided you in bringing bringing up your children?

[00:00:50]Uh, yeah. I'm a blessed of six children.

[00:00:55]Alhamdulilahi, by the grace of God. Um Kesser and and Zaman um, they're twins actually. My two children are twins, the older one.

[00:01:05]Then Salam Mahmud uh, is one of the Feltham.

[00:01:10]And obviously, you've got five boys, one girl. And uh My family I'm originally from Pakistan.

[00:01:19]Um Uh, I I joined my husband in 2009.

[00:01:26]Um, I'm a registered blind person, partially sighted. So Yeah, I was trying to um, you know, manage and coping with them with all the schooling and everything.

[00:01:39]It was a hard with the six children. It was not easy, especially when you are in this country. You don't have a um, family support. Normally, when we are back home, we have our family around to support you. Here, obviously, uh, it's not really. So, um uh to uh to their school responsibility and then everything. And as a vulnerable person, it was an up and down. It was not really easy. Also, it's not only that I was doing a lot for them, they were doing a lot for me. They they they were very um and they are very understanding children um due to my restrictions and everything that um it was a wonderful time with their uh schooling and with their or everything uh like in their life throughout their uh you know, their journey. Kessar uh as I said that my household is a five boys, one girl. So, Kessar uh was a her upbringing and everything, the way of the upbringing it was she was very strong. She is a very she was a very clear about it what is right and what's wrong. And she is the person who can take a stand even in her or in her secondary she was writing in an uh um kind of a what you call it articles about the the racism and a hate and everything.

[00:03:16]Obviously, uh as every mom like every mom uh um when when she was going through with all the situation and uh Salam as well um uh this is this is what was a belief and the faith which uh uh was holding me um keeping me strong.

[00:03:36]There's a I will quote um uh a verse of the Quran here that in a chapter uh six in a uh in the surah, Allah clearly said that uh you are not allowed to raise your voice but only for them uh for the people who are oppressed through the cruelty through the injustice and everything.

[00:04:01]So, this is this is this is our belief standing on it. Can you tell us what happened in in your house that one morning?

[00:04:09]So around 6:30 I heard the loud banging and everything and I call my next room door my oldest son there I say can you please go and check um um maybe it's a banging with with the neighbor that that that they they they have something wrong with the neighbor.

[00:04:24]>> [gasps] >> Then um before he you know he get up and he has to go and check my door was smashed and broken and they were couple of people like fully helmeted grenade they entered into my house and uh they came into my room and they were around four to five people in my room where I was um uh laying down with my children in my bed.

[00:04:55]>> [gasps] >> So when I saw these stranger and as I told you as a as a vulnerable person I the people who first um standing around five five foot six foot away from me I cannot see their uh their what they are wearing like what they are you know their their low what you call it lanyard or something like you can say that.

[00:05:20]>> [snorts] >> So, I couldn't see that I can't recognize I cannot I can't reach so I can't recognize that who they were. The first thing came in my mind that they are kind of a thugs they are kind of a gangster and they are here to kill me.

[00:05:35]And this was the thing the first thing came in my mind. My children they jump out from their bed and they came to me they were they were like you know they were they were hiding behind me and they were What happened? What happened?

[00:05:50]So, I just requested them as a helpless and uh very uh frightened person, the only thing I could do I was just begging to them with my hand, honestly. So, I was begging to them that please don't kill me. Don't kill my children. That's the only thing was coming in my mind to save me and my children.

[00:06:21]By the time my son came into my room while they were in my room and they were they were saying like calm down, calm down, but no one was telling me that who they are until I found. So, my son came into my room and he said, "Mom, calm down. They are police." I said, "They are police? I never saw police like they are coming in someone's house and they are breaking in their doors and everything. I mean how how is it possible? And and to my house?

[00:06:54]Anyway, he said that they were here to arrest Salam.

[00:06:59]And uh there was another shock for me.

[00:07:03]So, I Why they are arresting Salam and for what? And uh Anyway, I was in a shock. Obviously, I was in the same state of my mind and my son said that they already taken they they took him. So, they kept us kind you can say that they abduct us in the room.

[00:07:27]Then, when they took Salam, Salam left, I couldn't see him while he was leaving the house. He was in his room. He was sleeping in his room and then he told me after that, anyway, that what happened to him even.

[00:07:41]So, they said that you should you should go to the sitting room, to the living room where I'm sitting now.

[00:07:49]So, and we need to explain to you why we are here and everything.

[00:07:54]So, they took me took all of us like me, my uh four children.

[00:07:59]Uh we came in the sitting room and they said that we are counter terrorism terrorism police. And we are here to arrest your son Salam Mahmoud, which we done.

[00:08:09]And uh then I asked them, "Why why are you arresting my son? What he done that?"

[00:08:13]So, he said that he is a he's been he's he he has he has a connection with the breaking the alleged of Albert system in Filton in Bristol and everything. I said, "My son was in uni.

[00:08:27]He was all the time in uni and when this happened, why are you taking him?" I said, "Can I use the toilet?"

[00:08:35]And then said that no, you can use the toilet, but you cannot close the door. I There was an other like a in a such an a you know, embarrassment for me. I was so embarrassed that in front of the male uniformed people, they were in my Basically, they were everywhere in my house. They were in my last room, they were in my corridor, they were in my sitting room, they were everywhere.

[00:09:02]>> [snorts] >> So, I said and she said that the one of the lady uh from the police that she said that um you go and use the toilet, but you cannot close the door. The door was half and half and open half open basically and I have to use the toilet and then I brushed my teeth because it was a morning time.

[00:09:25]>> [snorts] >> So, and then I decided that I I I was thinking that I should change I should dress up and then I should leave the house. I was in my my clothes.

[00:09:36]So, because I was looking to them and they said when I when I was looking to them I I think they they're not going to let me do this and I don't want to do this after this uh you know, what happened like to use the toilet. So, I thought I should put an upper on and take an a coat and something and I should leave.

[00:09:54]>> [sighs] >> They said you should open your phone.

[00:09:59]Uh uh we need to see your phone.

[00:10:04]I opened the phone. They go through with my social media like uh my Instagram page, my Facebook, my WhatsApp, and at the end they said you should open your bank as well.

[00:10:17]That was quite, you know.

[00:10:20]So, I said okay, no problem. I'll do that. I opened my bank for them.

[00:10:24]And they saw my you know, transaction and stuff like that.

[00:10:28]>> [snorts] >> Then everything was done. So, they said you should leave the house.

[00:10:35]Mm you are not allowed to take your phone. Obviously, the phone were confiscated, mine and my children's one.

[00:10:41]You are not allowed to take your bank card, travel card, anything. Obviously, everything is basically my purse, my my wallet. So, I was not allowed to take it, which I have everything inside.

[00:10:55]So, then we left. Uh we went to the Sigman Square. There's a area around my downstair at my at my house.

[00:11:08]And uh we were there. We were I was crying obviously. I was I was in shock and I was crying.

[00:11:16]Uh one of the neighbor came, the school children came.

[00:11:20]Um and one of my my children's friend, they were came. They they were showing me the you know, some sympathy and everything. Auntie, what happened to you? Why do the family is outside at this time in the morning.

[00:11:33]Why is Why is your mom crying? And never my children been in in in a in a police station or in anything in a in a prison for anything. We Like, I mean I can't tell you that when everything was happening to me and especially to my children as um when Kesser was studying in UCL, the the world's the one of the Britain's best university.

[00:12:04]So as Salam, the University of Birmingham. And all my efforts that I always telling the people, they they just did not imprison my children, but they imprisoned the future of my family actually.

[00:12:22]Uh because their all my hopes were obviously when, you know, this is the parents dream when your child is doing degree and after that they will get a good job. We're going to be a stable financially [snorts] and everything. A good life, you know.

[00:12:39]So like every parent, I was thinking and uh that after their their degree, we going to be somewhere, you know, nice and everything.

[00:12:51]So everything gone.

[00:12:54]So the the the fact they were both charged um and and the Filton uh 24. Um do you think that means they can't have the life that you had hoped they'd have?

[00:13:08]Obviously at the moment, obviously Kesser, she is suspended from her uni, so as Salam.

[00:13:15]The life Obviously at the end, my children, the life with my children, obviously it will come back and it is coming back. It's on the track. It will take some time the things will settle, but with these charges and everything, um um I mean, it's [clears throat] it's it's I don't know. I don't know. I I can't say that, but I I'm hoping they're still young. They have time.

[00:13:40]And definitely they're going to go back, and this is I'm praying that they should go back in the uni. How [snorts] do you think it's affected your children being in prison? Um have you noticed a change in them?

[00:13:56]Rinse, uh obviously for Kessel and Salam, obviously it's a traumatized is is not only for them, obviously for me as well, but I I noticed that you know, especially uh well, Salam stayed uh obviously most of the time at home.

[00:14:14]So, obviously he's staying here.

[00:14:17]So, I can see that um when he talks about it um with his brother, they they don't like too much like talking to me about he he don't not even obviously don't want me to you know make him more, you know, miserable. So, if but when they're talking to each other as a sibling, I I can see that they they have a very strong impact like you can imagine Chris being a 19-year-old um you know, uh a person, and I know that Salam is just I always say that you just like is my like a kind of still is a kind of my baby. Well, he has to come to me, Mom, like let's buy this. This is what is on offer. Can we order something like outside? And he's still he's still like that.

[00:15:10]And the child like this um is he was spending 22 hours in a small cell. It It really hard for him. And he is it is it's a really strong impact on his life, and God knows how long it will go.

[00:15:30]>> [snorts] >> And uh it will take time to, you know, so as Kester Kester, she was she was badly treated by the in the prison, obviously. I When I was when I was I was looking um towards and when I was reading and looking all these statements and everything, and um when she is talking about it, you know, so it's a very it's a very, you know, it's it's a very hard time for my It was a hard time for my children. Really hard time for my children. It's actually So, you they they both seem to be trying to protect you from hearing how horrible it it was, which sounds like how great they are as people that they would they would try to stop you from hearing that. Yeah.

[00:16:17]Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:18]>> Especially my daughter, honestly, she she is she is a wonderful person as a She's a I don't know what should I say about it.

[00:16:29]She's a She's a soul not from this world, honestly.

[00:16:34]She's a very kind-hearted. She knows that the which thing it can affect my mom, and >> [gasps] >> so she always tried to keep, you know, the things away from me, but it's not easy as a parent. I I I take it.

[00:16:50]>> [snorts] >> And um especially her hard time >> [gasps] >> in prison and the way they were treating her in Brownsville, um I can't forget that, and especially after uh even she was in prison for 1 year, and then she started the hunger strike. I was keep asking her, begging her, but she was very committed towards, and So, did you did keep asking her to eat and stuff? Were you just I was uh But, did you think how could you how could you do it? How could you say it?

[00:17:27]Yeah, not Yeah, not in the very start of the hunger strike, but when when it was gradually the days were going like 30 35 hours I was I was very uh concerned about her health, but she I've been asking and she said no. It's my duty to do that and I will do that.

[00:17:49]And I could I I could see the how committed she is towards and that I was the the only thing when I was praying for her and uh seeking courage and you know uh courage from Allah from God. Yeah, for her.

[00:18:09]And [snorts] um the day when she was it was a 40 days 46th day of hunger strike like when she was collapsed.

[00:18:17]And just a horrible uh day throughout the day even shh until she was um taken to the hospital.

[00:18:27]And uh I was in my bed with severe migraine and I was 3 days I was in I was in bed because after that she you know when she finished her hunger strike after 48 or 50 days and she start little by little like little bit eating and stuff like that slowly like it was not easy like when you are on hunger strike you cannot uh straight away you can go back on like you are eating obviously they were it was a it's a time gradually you have to take the It was really hard as a mother when they were in prison and I couldn't I cannot bear this and I don't know how should I get off from this situation that my children are in prison. Both of my children are in prison. I was crying all the time. I was praying. I was crying. Then I start obviously then I focus on on on watching the videos, the internet, and everything on the internet about the the cousin, the children, the mothers, and the families.

[00:19:35]Then I realized that the pain they are going through. If as a mother that my children are in prison, I can see them. And one day I will see my children.

[00:19:47]So the mothers are of the Palestinian mothers, they are holding their dead children on their laps. And they were looking a place to bury them.

[00:20:00]And that was the thing was giving me the the strength for my children. And that was the thing was making me that why my children took this by especially my daughter, she took this step for them. What do you think about the the way this this case has gone and and um and and some of these people on the Hilton are being sentenced next month, aren't they?

[00:20:27]The basically the verdict should be should came from the jury. And then the judge should sentence. So in the in the first verdict, there is nothing no verdict from the jury as a terrorist.

[00:20:46]There was a no terrorist charges on any of them.

[00:20:50]So now we are listening, we are watching, they are going to be sentenced the in the retrial, they've been charged just for the criminal damages.

[00:21:02]And the criminal damages are not the terrorist charges because the jury did not verdict for the terrorist charges.

[00:21:10]So, how could the they are going to be sentenced as a terrorist?