Failed asylum seeker found guilty of trying to break into Israeli Embassy in London to launch knife attack

Alice Tomlinson
Fri, 01 May 2026 11:10:25 +0000

A failed asylum seeker has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of trying to break into London’s Israeli Embassy to launch a knife attack.

Abdullah Albadri, 34, a Kuwaiti national has been found guilty for preparing a terrorist act and two counts of possession of a bladed article.

On April 28, 2025, Albadri walked for an hour from Kilburn to the Israeli embassy on Kensington Palace Gardens in the capital, wearing a traditional Palestinian scarf wrapped around his face and sunglasses throughout.

He then attempted to climb the 7.5ft metal railings surrounding the embassy before being pulled down and arrested by armed diplomatic protection officers.

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A jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for nearly 14 hours before finding him guilty of preparation of terrorist acts and possession of two bladed articles on Friday.

He was remanded into custody to be sentenced on a date yet to be fixed.

Jurors heard Albadri, who was born into a stateless Arabian Bedoon tribe, had attempted to enter the embassy grounds to "exact revenge" for the killing of children in Gaza.

The court heard he had twice entered the UK illegally by small boat from France, first in 2021 and again in April 2025 and had been refused asylum on both occasions.

Albadri said he had been jailed and mistreated in Kuwait for campaigning for human rights on behalf of the Bedoon community.

PC Libby Chessor told the jury it had been "challenging" to pull Albadri from the fence as he had been holding on "quite strongly."

She said: "The way he was walking towards the embassy, the things he was saying, how quickly he jumped up - I believed it was his intent to get over that railing."

Officers had pinned him down, after he had leapt up the eight-foot mental fence just before 6pm in April last year.

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Body-worn camera footage played in court captured Albadri telling officers he had "got my weapons" before saying: "I wanna make a crime inside there - why are you stopping me?

"Why are you stopping me from making crimes?"

He later complained: "Why didn't you let me in?"

Before being placed in a police van, Albadri was also heard saying: "You know it's just a message, yeah.

"They need to stop this f****** war on children.

"We need to live in harmony because the children who live there, it's all the same."

In his defence, Albadri insisted he had never intended to enter the embassy grounds or harm anyone, describing his shouts as a protest and claiming the knives were intended for personal use as he was homeless.

He said the knives were for "personal use" and that referring to them as "weapons" had been sarcastic.

Speaking in court, he said: "It is against what I believe. It is against my nature. It is against my character.

"How are we going to stop killing by killing?"

He also claimed his martyrdom note was simply an "overly dramatic" letter to his mother, but acknowledged under questioning that he would consider being shot while protesting peacefully to be a form of martyrdom.

Defence barrister Chris Henry KC said Albadri had been in a "state of total despair" after his asylum claim was rejected and he was told to leave an asylum hotel.

He said: "This trial is not about our views of asylum seekers who come across on small boats. This case is about a human being in real distress and what is going on inside his head."

The jury rejected the defence and found Albadri guilty on all counts.