By Sarah Young and Michael Holden
LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - A 45-year-old man appeared in a London court on Friday charged with attempted murder over an attack during which two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, north London, in what police are treating as a terrorist incident.
In its wake, government officials raised the national terrorism threat to its second-highest level, meaning a terrorist attack is highly likely within the next six months.
The stabbings, on Wednesday, followed a spate of incidents targeting Jewish premises in the same area of north London, home to a large Jewish population, prompting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to vow stronger action to protect Jewish people.
Pro-Palestinian marches - which critics say have encouraged antisemitism - could now face new restrictions amid widespread calls for more protection for Britain's small Jewish community of about 290,000.
NEXT COURT APPEARANCE ON MAY 15
On Friday, Essa Suleiman appeared at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court charged with two counts of the attempted murder of 34-year-old Shloime Rand and 76-year-old Moshe Shine – named in the charges as Norman Shine – and possession of a bladed article in relation to Wednesday's attack.
Suleiman, a British national who was born in Somalia, was also charged with attempted murder in relation to a separate incident earlier on the same day in south London, when prosecutor Emma Harraway said he had visited a man's home and allegedly tried to stab him.
He allegedly then travelled to the north of the British capital later that day, she said.
The first victim, Rand, had been studying at a synagogue in Golders Green and was wearing "traditional clothing associated with an Orthodox Jewish man" when Suleiman allegedly ran at him and stabbed him with the knife, Harraway said.
Suleiman then allegedly attacked Shine, also wearing traditional Jewish attire, as he waited at a bus stop, the prosecutor added, before the suspect was arrested by police using a stun gun, Harraway said.
Rand suffered a punctured lung but has since been released from hospital, while Shine suffered a stab wound to his neck, although the wound was not life threatening.
Suleiman, flanked by two security guards, appeared in the dock wearing a grey tracksuit, often stroking his goatee beard, and was remanded in custody until his next appearance at London's Old Bailey court on May 15.
Speaking only to confirm his name and date of birth, he gave no indication of any pleas to the charges, and the court was told by the prosecution his address was a mental health facility in south London.
STABBINGS RAISE FEARS AMONG JEWS
The incident has taken on a political dimension ahead of local government elections on May 7, which are likely to see Starmer's Labour Party suffer heavy losses and could even trigger an internal challenge to his leadership.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch both visited the site of the attack to amplify a message, voiced by some in the community, that the government had failed to protect Jews.
Starmer, who has condemned the incident and pledged more funding and tougher legislation, was heckled by a small group of people when he visited, as was London police chief Mark Rowley.
(Reporting by Sarah Young and Michael Holden in London and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; additional reporting by William James and Sam Tobin, Editing by William James, Alex Richardson and Kate Holton)
