Two thugs threatened to kill Arsenal footballer Mesut Ozil and his security guard outside the German star’s £9 million north London home, a court heard today .
The incident happened shortly after the £300,000-per-week Herman international midfielder stepped up security at his Highgate mansion following a terrifying attack on his car, the court was told.
Salaman Ekinci and Ferhat Ercun, both 27, deny using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour to harass security guard Kemil Sezer last August.
The two defendants are accused of swearing in Turkish at the guard, also saying they would have sex with his mother and the footballer’s mother.
Sarah Gabay, prosecuting, told Highbury Magistrates Court that Mr Sezer had been working outside the footballer’s mansion with another guard, Saadant Guldiken (CORR), on August 8 last year.
She said: “It is the Crown’s case that at 8pm that evening, the defendants were spotted walking past.
“Mr Güldiken’s attention was drawn to them. One of them was staring at them. There was a conversation and the defendants walked off.
“At 10.35pm later that night, the complainant and the other guard were in a car outside the address.
“Both defendants were swearing at security guards and using abusive language against Mr Ozil.
“Mr Ercun further said he would come back in five minutes to kill the security guards and also Mr Ozil. The defendants then ran down the road.
“They called police who came and left.”
“After midnight, the defendants came back and the security guards detained them while police were called.
“At interview they denied using the language against them, and said there had been no conversation between them. They said they had been attacked by the security guards.”
Mr Sezer, giving evidence through a Turkish interpreter, said he had started guarding the footballer three weeks before the altercation.
He said: “Initially we saw these two men at approximately 7.30pm. They walked past us as we were standing outside there door. Initially, there was nothing strange about them.
“When they came the second time and started swearing at us, at 10.30pm. We were sitting in a car and they were on the other side of the road on the pavement.
“They both started swearing. I don’t know which one said what.
“They said, ‘We’re going to f**k your mothers. We are going to f**k Mesut’s mother. We’re going to come back five minutes later. If the security don’t go from here, we’re going to kill Mesut and we’re going to kill you.’
“Whilst we heard they were saying this, we started chasing them on foot.
“[We were angry] because we could understand Turkish and what they were saying about our mothers and what they said about the mother of the person we were protecting.
“We got angry because Mesut Ozil about two to three weeks prior to that was attacked and we feared the same thing would happen.”
Mr Sezer said after they failed to catch up with them, he next saw the defendants around midnight.
He said: “They were shouting and were coming along the road but on this occasion they were shouting in English.
“They were drunk so I really don’t know what they were saying.
“Initially we waited for them to go away.
“I waited for them to come closer and then I had my dog take them out in order to protect ourselves.
“They were carrying carrier bags and we didn’t know what was in the bags.
“I approached them in order to ask why they swore at us because we didn’t do anything to them and ask them why they were referring to the person we were protecting.
“Our conversation didn’t last long, approximately 10 seconds. We asked him why he swore and he answered in English.
“I really can’t remember what he said. I was holding onto the dog and he attacked him. He was afraid and he took off.
“Mr Ozil himself came out and saw what was going on.
“I was stressed because Mr Ozil is loved by the Turkish people. We have a responsibility to protect him.”
Ekinci, of Tottenham, and Ercun, of Highgate, north London, both in three piece suits, listened quietly as they heard the opening of the evidence.
The trial continues.
Turf Moor
Mikel Arteta took a bizarre swipe at the playing conditions after watching Arsenal struggle to cling on for a goalless draw against Burnley at Turf Moor.
The Gunners were distinctly second best for much of the match with Jay Rodriguez coming closest to breaking the deadlock for the hosts when he rammed his second-half strike against the underside of the bar.
Despite the continued overcast weather in the north-west, Arteta insisted the long grass and a dry pitch had played a crucial role in preventing his side playing their normal game.
Indicating a couple of inches, Arteta insisted: “The conditions were difficult – the grass was this long and they didn’t put any water on it, and that’s not a very helpful thing to play football.
“I didn’t water the pitch yesterday at the training ground because I expected it, but that doesn’t make it any easier to play.
“They (Burnley) do what they do really well, and you are allowed to do it so we have to react to that.
“In some moments it wasn’t the grass – it was their quality and what they do really well, and we could not do it in the right way.”