HC Deb 17 November 1977 vol 939 cc295-6W
26. Mr. Brittan

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a further statement about the circumstances in which Zohair Yousif Akache was permitted to leave the country on or about 10th April 1977.

Mr. Merlyn Rees

The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis tells me that detailed police inquiries have established that Akache, against whom warrants of arrest have been issued for the murder of three Yemen Arab Republic subjects in London on 10th April 1977, left the country that afternoon. He left through Heathrow Airport, using a Kuwaiti passport in the name of Ahmed Badir A1-Majid. Soon after the murders had been committed the police and the immigration service at Heathrow were alerted, but the descriptions of the suspect provided to the police were insufficiently detailed to enable Akache to be identified and apprehended. It was not until the following day that urgent and painstaking police inquiries provided evidence linking Akache with these crimes.