Mesut Ozil: Charges dropped after security guard threat claims

Two men who were accused of threatening security guards outside Mesut Ozil's house have had their charges dropped.

Ferhat Ercun and Salaman Ekinci, both 28, were charged with behaving in a threatening or abusive manner outside the Arsenal star's property last year.

The guards claimed the pair had made derogatory remarks but the men claimed they were the ones who were attacked.

District Judge Alison Rose dismissed the charges after a hearing at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court.

Mr Ercun and Mr Ekinci, both of Tottenham, had met on 8 August 2019 to walk to Hampstead Heath.

They passed the German midfielder's north London home several times.

The guards had claimed Mr Ercun had sworn in Turkish, made derogatory remarks about their mothers and the mother of Mr Ozil, and threatened to kill them.

However, Mr Ercun told the court the pair had been frightened by the guards' behaviour and he had been "struck across [the] left temple with a baseball bat".

The court previously heard from Kemil Sezer, one of the guards, who said that the security staff did not carry baseball bats in their job.

Mr Ekinci was previously acquitted at a hearing on 12 August and gave evidence on behalf of Mr Ercun, telling the court he had "never been in trouble with the police in my life".

The court also heard that security measures were installed outside the house after Mr Ozil and a teammate had been victims of an attempted robbery weeks before.

Johan Grefstad, defending, told magistrates this had possibly meant the guards were "on high alert" and may have "overheard something and misconstrued it".

Dismissing the charges, District Judge Alison Rose said there was little evidence to suggest the guards had been specific targets of any threatening or abusive behaviour.

She said she could not "accept the evidence of the defendant that nothing at all happened", but "they were young and drunk and both security guards perceived them as such".

This article was originally published by BBC News. [Photo: PA Media]