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A 45-year-old man, Essa Suleiman, was charged Friday with attempted murder in the stabbings of two Jewish men in London, the latest case to heighten concern among Britain’s Jewish community, according to court and police accounts. Suleiman was remanded into custody after appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, and the case was transferred to the Central Criminal Court for a May 15 hearing.
At the hearing, prosecutor Emma Harraway told the court that Suleiman attacked Ishmail Hussein, his friend of 20 years, in south London before taking a train to the north part of the city where he targeted Jews hours later, the Associated Press reported. Harraway said the sequence of attacks included an assault on Shloime Rand, 34, outside a synagogue, and a separate stabbing of Norman Shine, 76, at a bus stop.
Harraway said Suleiman attacked Rand in the chest, puncturing his lung, and that Shine was stabbed in the neck. In court, she described the encounter with Shine as unfolding after he adjusted his kippah, as Suleiman “ran towards him and set upon him, launching a series of aggressive blows,” according to the AP report.
The charges include two counts related to the Golders Green attack, where Shine was hurt, and a third count of attempted murder linked to an incident earlier Wednesday elsewhere in London that left a man with minor injuries. Suleiman, who is described as a Somalia-born British citizen who lives in London, did not enter a plea, the AP said.
Rand was discharged from the hospital, while police said Shine was in stable condition. Police also said Suleiman was referred in 2020 to the government’s Prevent program, which tries to steer individuals away from extremism, and that his file was closed later that year without disclosing the reason for the referral.
Police labeled the Golders Green attack an act of terrorism, and the case fed into broader political and security moves in the U.K. The British government pledged to tackle antisemitism after the stabbings, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government would increase security for the Jewish community and “do everything in our power to stamp this hatred out.”
Britain’s official terror threat level was raised from substantial to severe after Wednesday’s stabbing attack, which the government said means intelligence agencies consider an attack highly likely in the next six months. The government said the change was not due solely to the Golders Green attack but also reflected increased danger from “Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat from individuals and small groups based in the U.K.”