A man accused of religiously aggravated assault outside a London synagogue told a court on Friday he got “very hot, very upset” during the altercation and that “my body did not act with my brain”.
Samir Magdy Hassan Aly, 32, is on trial in Wood Green Crown Court, London following the fight outside the shul at St Mary's Church on Stoke Newington High Street in November 2022.
Aly admitted he threw two punches at the father of a bat mitzvah girl, Daniel Lewandowski, who had been attempting to park outside the synagogue when the pair got into a confrontation.
The prosecution accused Aly of using antisemitic slurs and of assault, both of which Aly denied.
Aly claimed instead that he was acting in self-defence after Lewandowski pushed him. He told the court he was pushed and then punched by Lewandowski, though the shul-goer’s legal team told the court he did not throw a punch.
The court heard that Aly was working as a removal man at the time of the incident. He said he was “focused with my job” removing boxes from a property and loading them into a white van parked near St Mary’s Church when Lewandowski, arriving for his daughter’s bat mitzvah, asked him how long he was going to be.
Aly recalled saying he would be “about two, three hours”, adding that when Lewandowski asked him to vacate the parking space because “he has an event”, he replied: “I’m not going. The customer told me to stay here.
“I refused to give him the space because I was working… I’m not moving the van, when I’m finished I’m gone,” Aly said.
Aly said the conversation felt “high tension”. He told the court that Lewandowski called him a “piece of c***t”, and that he swore back: “You piece of sh*t, I need to work, what do you want from me, f**k off.”
In CCTV footage shown in court, Aly could be seen gesticulating. He told the court this was because “I’m from Italy, we normally speak with our hands.”
In the clip, he could be seen leaning towards the window of the passenger seat, where a witness was sitting. According to Aly: “She said it wasn’t nice how I was talking. She was right but I didn’t respond to her.”
The prosecution alleged that Aly was hostile in relation to Lewandowski’s Judaism, and told him “you think I’m going to move for those people who are killing Palestinian children” and “Hitler was right”.
Aly denied this and told the court he had no idea that Lewandowski was Jewish, nor that St Mary’s was being used as a synagogue. He was shown CCTV footage of the bat mitzvah girl walking into the building wearing a yarmulke. In response to seeing the footage in court, he said he had not seen the girl at the time.
In the CCTV footage, Lewandowski could be seen driving away after the discussion, then returning on foot and shoving Aly.
Aly told the court Lewandowski punched him with his right hand. The prosecution and defence disagreed about whether a punch had been thrown, and the clip was replayed in slow motion for the court.
“The punch made me very hot, very upset,” Aly said, claiming it landed in the “centre of my nose”.
“The fact that he [Lewandowski] done it made me upset… I’m very angry.”
He recounted throwing “two punches” at Lewandowski, who could be seen stumbling back in the CCTV footage.
When asked by the prosecution why he punched Lewandowski a second time after “space” came between the two, if, as he claimed, he was acting in self-defence, Aly said: “I felt he would do it again.”
But he said that when he watched the CCTV footage of the incident, “When I saw the second punch… I was disappointed with myself... I should watch him and go away.
“I feel very sorry,” he continued. “I was angry and upset.”
After the altercation, people began coming out of the synagogue. It was only at this point, Aly said, that he realised the building had any connection to Judaism. “After I see them I see they were Jewish,” he said, and explained this was because of “how they dressed”.
According to Aly: “One gentleman ask me if I believe in god.”
“I said I do but you don’t. He said about the holy book and I said it had been changed.”
Aly then told the court about his perceived understanding of the Torah - “that came from Moses” - the Christian Bible and the Quran. “Those books are exactly the same,” he said.
Aly is accused of causing religiously aggravated intentional alarm or distress, religiously aggravated common assault, and/or assault by beating. He denies the charges and claims he was acting in self-defence.
The jury was expected to begin deliberations today.
