Jalal Uddin Public Inquiry

Today sees the opening hearing of the Jalal Uddin Inquiry.

Mr Uddin, a retired Imam aged 71, was bludgeoned to death in a children’s play area in the Wardleworth area of Rochdale on 18 February 2016.  Mr Uddin had been unknowingly followed by two men in a Vauxhall Astra, when one got out and attacked him with a hammer, causing horrific head injuries.

After Mr Uddin’s death, a police investigation concluded that suspected Islamic extremist Mohammed Abdul Kadir dealt the fatal blows.  Kadir fled the country and was thought to have travelled to Syria via Copenhagen and Istanbul. He has not yet been found.  Mohammed Hussain Syeedy, who had been driving the Astra, and a second man, Mohammed Syadul Hussain, who provided Kadir with £700 to travel out of the UK, both stood trial for their crimes.  Syeedy was jailed for life in 2016, with a minimum term of 24 years, and Hussain was jailed for five years in 2017.  The trials heard that Mr Uddin was killed because he practised taweez faith healing, regarded by some extremists as “black magic.”

Following the criminal proceedings, an inquest into Mr Uddin’s death was resumed in November 2020. His Honour Judge Patrick Field KC, who had been presiding over the inquest as Coroner, ruled the inquest must consider if Kadir and Syeedy should have been considered as known risks for Islamic extremism by the authorities. In a written judgment he said the evidence gave rise ‘to a credible suggestion that Kadir represented a present and continuing risk to the lives of members of society at large, that the authorities knew or ought to have known of that risk; and that they failed to take measures to avoid it.’

In November 2022 the Coroner, His Honour Judge Teague KC, Chief Coroner of England and Wales, made a request to the Home Secretary that the inquest be converted to a statutory inquiry in order to permit all relevant evidence to be heard.

The announcement of the establishment of the inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 was made on 9 November 2023 by former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman.  The Inquiry’s Terms of Reference can be found here: https://www.jalaluddin.public-inquiry.uk/terms-of-reference/.

Jason Beer KC is Counsel to the Inquiry.  Jonathan Dixey acts for Greater Manchester Police.  Olivia Checa-Dover acts for West Yorkshire Police.​

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Authors

Jason Beer KC

Call 1992 | Silk 2011

Jonathan Dixey

Call 2007

Olivia Checa-Dover

Call 2007

Related areas

Public Inquiries

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