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Julia Quenzler
A court artist sketch of Abdullah Sabah Albadri at the Old Bailey last week
A man arrested trying to break into the Israeli embassy in London, armed with two knives, put his "life on the line" trying to get to the UK, a jury has heard.
Abdullah Albadri, from Kuwait, twice entered Britain on a small boat from France - first in 2021, and again in April 2025, shortly before his arrest - the Old Bailey was told.
His defence case is likely to be that he was not trying to enter the embassy for a terrorist purpose, and that he was carrying the knives "for a good reason" unrelated to his activities that day, jurors have been told.
Albadri, 34, denies the charge of preparing terrorist acts and two charges of possession of a bladed article.
He told jurors on Tuesday that he was born into the stateless Arabian Bedoon tribe, on the border between Iraq and Kuwait, and no human rights or passport in Kuwait.
Albadri said his father, a police officer, paid for his education until he was 18 and that he later became a human rights activist, having faced a "wall" when it came to higher education.
He told the court he was "brutally arrested" for handing out flyers, spending five years in prison where he slept on the floor and there were "a lot of beatings".
After being released, he decided to travel to the UK for the "prosperity", "freedom" and "human rights" he had seen on television, jurors heard.
His first journey to Dover, Kent, was on a small boat containing 83 people in August 2021.
Albadri told the court: "You put your life on the line. Everybody is scared, shouting, fighting. The life jackets is just for a few people, my life jacket I gave to a child."
He said he tried to hitch-hike from London to Manchester but fell asleep in the back of a lorry, later waking up to find himself in France.
He was granted residency status and worked as a driver in Lyon, learned French and paid taxes but was refused citizenship, he said.
For his next journey to the UK, last year, he paid £1,200 to armed smugglers to transport him back to Dover in a boat with 63 others, the court heard.
He said one of the smugglers had a pistol and migrants were loaded on to the vessel in a line. In the UK, he found temporary accommodation at an asylum seekers' hotel in Basingstoke but was told he could not stay there, jurors heard.
He said he felt "alone and lost" and took a train to London, sleeping outside a Home Office building and then a park. He sought help from a migrant charity and a mosque, and tried to find work, the court heard.
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.
