A Christian street preacher in the UK, Pastor Oluwole Ilesanmi, has been awarded £2,500 (about $3,100) by Scotland Yard for his wrongful arrest in February 2019.
He was awarded damages for the ordeal which include general damages for false imprisonment in the sum of £500, plus £1,000 for the exceptional humiliation and degradation and £1,000 for the mental trauma caused to Pastor Oluwole.
On Saturday 23 February, the 64 year old Christian street preacher and former dentist, was arrested outside Southgate tube station in London for ‘breaching the peace’.
Apparently the police said that they were called by a passer-by who complained that the preacher was being ‘Islamophobic’ as he shared the gospel with passers-by. He accused him of hate speech.
Oluwole IIlesanmi admits to having described Islam as an ‘aberration’ but insists he was simply expressing his point of view as a Christian rather than denigrating Muslims.
One of the police officers claimed Mr Ilesanmi was disturbing the peace, saying: ‘No one wants to hear that. They want you to go away.’
A passerby, Ambrosine Shitrit, a Jewish campaigner from Campaign4Truth and Eye On Antisemitism, filmed the incident on her phone (as seen below). This went viral and casued
He found himself penniless and unable to navigate back to a familiar area. With no money on him, a member of the public paid for Olu's bus ticket back to High Barnet, according to Christian Concern.
Scotland Yard has now agreed to pay Mr Ilesanmi £2,500 for wrongful arrest and his humiliating and distressing treatment.
Mr Ilesanmi told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I believe God loves everyone, including Muslims, but I have the right to say I that I don’t agree with Islam – we are living in a Christian country, after all.
‘I was upset when they took away my Bible. They just threw it in the police car. They would never have done that if it had been the Koran. Whatever happened to freedom of speech?’
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