A retrial jury in the Manchester Airport assault case has been discharged after failing to reach verdicts, leaving prosecutors to decide whether to seek a third trial. Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, and Muhammad Amaad, 26, had denied assaulting Greater Manchester PC Zachary Marsden.
The jury had been told it could return a majority verdict, but after nearly 20 hours of deliberating it was unable to agree. The case was then adjourned until 29 May to give the Crown Prosecution Service time to decide what it wants to do next.
The alleged assault took place on 23 July 2024 in the car park pay station area of Terminal Two at Manchester Airport, after police approached the two brothers from Rochdale there following an earlier incident at a coffee shop. In court, the brothers said they had acted in lawful self-defence, or in defence of the other.
That account remains at the centre of the case, which has already been heard once before. The retrial has now ended without a verdict, but the prosecution has not yet walked away from the case.
What happens next is straightforward: by 29 May, the Crown Prosecution Service must decide whether the evidence is strong enough to justify putting Amaaz and Amaad before another jury. Until then, the Manchester Airport Trial remains unfinished, with the outcome still open.
