Activist felt ‘dehumanised’ after MP told him ‘go back to Bahrain’, court hears
Bob Stewart, MP for Beckenham in south-east London, was convicted last November for a racially aggravated public order offence.
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An activist has told a court that he felt “dehumanised” after a Conservative politician told him to “go back to Bahrain”.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei was told by Bob Stewart, MP for Beckenham in south-east London, that “you’re taking money off my country, go away”, during a row outside the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House in Westminster on December 14 2022.
Mr Stewart was convicted last November for a racially aggravated public order offence in relation to the incident.
He appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Friday to appeal against that conviction.
Mr Stewart, 74, had been attending an event hosted by the Bahraini embassy when protester Mr Alwadaei shouted “Bob Stewart, for how much did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?”
During a heated exchange, Stewart replied: “Go away, I hate you. You make a lot of fuss. Go back to Bahrain.”
He also told Mr Alwadaei to “get stuffed, Bahrain’s a great place, end of”.
In footage played during his appeal, he added: “Now you shut up, you stupid man.”
The court heard that Mr Alwadaei came to the UK from Bahrain as a refugee.
He said that he was tortured for attending a protest against the Bahraini regime, and this led him to flee.
Mr Alwadaei said he wanted to question Mr Stewart about his support for Bahrain.
“Those that would affiliate themselves with a regime that is so corrupt, they should be questioned for their affiliation,” he said.
Asked about Mr Stewart’s reply, that he “go back” to Bahrain, he said he felt “dehumanised” by the remarks.
“To me the context was very clear, that I am not wanted, that I am not welcome in Britain,” he said.
Mr Stewart is a former British Army officer who was stationed in Bahrain in 1969 and has described himself as a “friend” of the Middle Eastern country.
He denied that his comments were racist.
Instead he claimed that he simply meant to tell Mr Alwadaei that he could protest safely if he were to return to Bahrain.
“(I said) go back to Bahrain because I know it to be a very decent place and I thought you would get a decent hearing there,” he said.
He said he was “upset” by Mr Alwadaei’s remarks as they were “audible” to everyone in the queue to the event.
He said he felt the remarks meant “that I was a corrupt man and that I had accepted money from Bahrain”.
He added: “I had not. I was upset by this.”
He added that when he said “I hate you” he meant “I hate what you are saying”.
He was asked if he was racist.
“I don’t think so, it is the last thing I am,” he said.