Muhammad Zakir Arif, of Harrington Close, Bury, appeared at Manchester Crown Court earlier today (Monday 9 September 2024) and was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, strangulation or suffocation, two counts of possession of a bladed article in a public place, and two counts of failure to comply with a Section 49 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act notice.
Muhammad Zakir Arif has been sentenced to three years in prison.
The three-year sentence also included two counts of robbery, one count of attempted robbery and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, which Arif had been found guilty of during a previous trial which took place in November 2023.
On the evening of 18 January 2023, Arif approached a juvenile male in Cornwall Drive, Bury, and produced a ‘zombie style knife’, threatening the victim before forcing him to hand over his bag and jacket. The attack was recorded on video and later circulated on social media. This followed a similar robbery committed by Arif earlier that same month.
In February 2024, whilst on court bail awaiting sentencing for the robbery offences, Arif was travelling in a taxi in Hulme when the car was stopped, and he was arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences. In his possession at the time of his arrest was a machete, a large zombie knife and two mobile phones.
Having refused to provide the passcodes for the two mobile phones, Arif was served with a Section 49 RIPA Court Order, which compels a suspect to provide access to their electronic devices or face prosecution. The application for the order had been granted in the interests of national security but he still refused to provide access.
Whilst in custody, Arif was questioned by detectives several times and, on one occasion, he leapt forward at the interviewer before launching a brutal attack. After punching the detective in the head numerous times, he then proceeded to violently strangle the officer before he could be restrained.
Speaking following the sentencing, Head of Investigations for Counter Terrorism Policing North West, Detective Superintendent Andy Meeks, said:
“Today’s sentencing is the culmination of months of dedicated work by the investigation team to ensure Muhammad Zakir Arif faced the consequences of his actions. Machetes and zombie knives have no place on our streets so we’re pleased that two dangerous weapons have been seized and will be destroyed. However, his offending didn’t stop after his arrest and he would go on to repeatedly flout a legal order, refuse to answer questions, and violently attack somebody as they tried to do their job.
Thankfully the detective has fully recovered and returned to work, having been closely supported by colleagues across the team. Muhammad Zakir Arif was sentenced to three years in prison. We welcome the sentence imposed by the judge today.”
I’m sorry, three years. That is pathetic. This is clearly a profoundly dangerous individual, just using the zombie knife and machete in a robbery should be a 10 year sentence, the assault on the police officer another decade..with any terror activity added on.
This is one of the problems, we send to many people down for too long for minor stuff and those that cross over the pale seem to only have the same sentences. Things like terror offences, rape, sexual exploitation, trafficking should all carry life sentences.
totally agree with you!
Can’t disagree with you, there are quite clearly political factors influencing these sentences whatever the reassurances. Anything deemed anti or against Govt interests (as the Post Masters discovered) will be severely and often blindly punished, while equal, or as in this case worse and even repeated offences against the public or often even police, will be far more leniently dealt with. I am seriously shocked this person isn’t put away for a very long term. There is no indication from what we read whatsoever that he will reform in any timescale let alone 3 years, or as you say likely a good bit less. I fear someone will end up dead or maimed by this maniac eventually.
Not so sure abou the life sentences bit – but I definately agree there seems to be a disparity when looking across sentencing as a whole.
Even worse when you consider how some crimes do not now even warrant jail time at all.
Shop lifting for example costs millions but it is treated with ambivalence by courts, along with knife crime etc , both of which are now ubiquitous on our streets.
But we can’t expect custodial sentences due to how many are in jail – and even those are freed -go figure.
I’m sure Starer with his CPS background has a handle on it…
There is either an issue with the comments function, or comments are being deliberately removed from posts without any info regarding why.
I see from my emails that 3 comments i made across different articles on 25/9 that recieved replies are all not appearing in the articles themselves…?
Transparency around this would be appreciated
Three years, pathetic. It took four people to pull him off. By the time he did, the DC questioning him had nearly passed out. What this article doesn’t say is he is a member of the same Mosque as another 11 men who are currently serving sentences for terrorism offences.
If this was the 1960s, the government would have declared a civil emergency. The number of bods being watched is increasing by 20% every year. The budgets each department gets are being squeezed. In real terms, three branches have had their budgets cut. One of them is undermanned by 25% and it is not improving. The military has the same problem with 4 leaving for every 1 joining the IC.
Meanwhile, Putin has an increasing number of useful idiots running around the country doing their best to cause aggravation. Guess who is funding several of the organisations that bring our city and town centres to a standstill every weekend? We are not talking about funding CND like the Yugos did in the 70-80’s. These groups are trying to push the civilian policing services to breaking point in the hope that when something does kick off.