BLM activist Xahra Saleem, 22, charged with fraud involving fundraiser for Colston statue protest
BRISTOL, UK: A Black Lives Matter organiser who helped run demo that toppled Edward Colston's statue is charged with fraud involving a fundraiser linked to the protest movement. Xahra Saleem, an organizer of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations is now arrested for indulging in fraudulent activity. The 22-year-old activist will now appear in front of magistrates in Bristol in January, and is being booked with two counts of fraud by abuse of position after it was discovered in an investigation into a fundraiser linked to the BLM movement.
A GoFundMe page titled ‘BristBLM’ was set up for demonstration on June 7, 2020 after which donation money reportedly went completely missing, claims Avon and Somerset Police. “A woman is due in court at the start of next year after the Crown Prosecution Service authorised charges following a fraud investigation,” an Avon & Somerset Police spokesman said in a statement. It added, “Xahra Saleem, 22 and from East London, has been charged with two counts of fraud by abuse of position. She is due before Bristol Magistrates Court on Tuesday 3 January 2023.”
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As per the update, there is no suggestion of any other individual involved or investigated in the creation of All Black Lives Bristol were involved in Saleem's alleged fraudulent activities. There was quite an upsurge among people when the four protesters who took part in the toppling of 18th century slave trader Colston, Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford, Sage Willoughby, and Jake Skuse, were cleared from being prosecuted. Many campaigners said that the judgement is the “green light to political vandalism.” The protesters also stormed in to ruin Winston Churchill's statue outside Parliament and it was eventually had to be covered up to avoid further destruction.
The famous Colston statue was brought down in June 2020, following a sea of protests across the UK, the US, and many other parts of the world. It was brought to the ground at Bristol harbor during the protests amid the death of a Black man George Floyd in the United States. In April, a private school founded by Colston was renamed amid the backlash, reported the Daily Mail.
Saleem calls herself a screenwriter and co-founded the All Black Lives Bristol group created after the demonstrations, as per the investigation. Its intention was to raise cash for Changing Your Mindset, a youth group based in the St Pauls area of Bristol city. Furthermore, the 22-year-old is also slapped with a fraudulent Crowdfunder page, 'Bristol Protestors Legal Fees', which allegedly raised money for people facing criminal proceedings after the city's protests.