‘Deeply unpleasant offence’, says judge
An aspiring lawyer is facing the prospect of a spell behind bars after calling Arsenal and England football star Bukayo Saka a “monkey” in a vile online rant.
Suhel Ali, who studies law at London’s City University, uploaded an audio message on X in which he also called the star winger a “fucking black piece of shit” in the wake of Arsenal’s defeat to Nottingham Forest in May 2023.
Last week, the law student, an Arsenal fan, admitted to sending an offensive message via a public communication network during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The court heard that Ali described Saka as “the shittest winger I’ve ever seen at my club,” before using a racial slur and saying: “You’re a monkey — you’re a fucking monkey.”
Police tracked down Ali via his IP address with the help of his mother, who spoke to officers on the phone and gave them his email address.
The law student’s barrister told the court that Ali, like Saka, is of Nigerian heritage, and that he used the N-word “not in a racial context but in an offensive context,” The Sun reports.
“He was just firing off some really stupid, offensive remarks about how a footballer played,” he added.
Ali reportedly gave a similar account in his police interview, explaining that the message stemmed from frustration rather than racial animosity.
District Judge Briony Clarke said Ali had “committed a deeply unpleasant offence which has been described as a huge mistake and very sad”. She also pointed out that Saka had previously been a target of racial abuse online.
Ali was released on bail ahead of his sentencing on October 8, with the judge warning that “nothing is being ruled out at this stage”.
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