Sudanese man's alleged attack sparks Belfast riots

A man from Sudan appeared in a Belfast court charged with attempted murder over a stabbing attack that left a man seriously injured and triggered anti-immigrant violence in several parts of Northern Ireland, reports the LA Times. Hadi Alodid was ordered to be held in jail after an appearance by video in Belfast Magistrate’s Court, where a detective said he blinded Stephen Ogilvie in the left eye during the knife attack. He was also charged with possessing a knife and threatening to kill a radiographer while being treated for a hand injury after the assault. When police arrived at the crime scene, they found Alodid on the man, armed with a kitchen knife, the detective said. He refused legal representation through an Arabic interpreter and did not enter a plea. The court appearance followed a night of violence in which masked men set fire to several homes they believed to house immigrants, burned trash bins, torched a Belfast bus and pelted police with objects. Firefighters rescued several people from burning homes. Politicians from both parts of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government condemned the violence. First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein said it was ‘thuggery.’ ‘Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,’ she said. Monday’s attack, caught in video footage that quickly spread on social media, was seized on by anti-immigration activists.