AN UNCLE has slammed police for taking “no action whatsoever” while his radicalised young nephews were being racially abused.

Omar Deghayes, whose relatives died fighting in Syria, made the comments after a serious case review found professionals missed opportunities to prevent two teenage muslims being radicalised before they were killed after travelling to fight in Syria.

There was “no recognition” Abdullah Deghayes, 18, his 17-year-old brother Jaffar, and their three siblings were becoming vulnerable to radicalisation in Brighton, the report said.

It also revealed the family was the victim of racial abuse going back more than a decade – with uncle Omar’s arrest in Pakistan in 2002 and subsequent five years detention in Guantanamo Bay thought to be a factor.

The publicity around his release seems to have been the spark for a persistent and prolonged campaign of racial hatred, according to the report.

In 2009 the message “Behead all muslims” was daubed in 12 inch high letters near their home in Saltdean.

Organised right wing groups also targeted the family, including one incident in January 2013, when they had to be removed from outside the Deghayes’ home where they were waving flags and shouting abuse through a megaphone.

Reports at the time said Sussex Police received intelligence that the neo-Nazi National Front had set up a chapter in Saltdean in order to target the Deghayes family as well as the anti-muslim English Defence League and Casuals United, a network of far-right football hooligans.

The force’s city commander, Chief Superintendent Lisa Bell, said no one was more frustrated than officers that offenders behind more than a decade of racial abuse towards the Deghayes family were not brought to justice.

But Mr Deghayes contacted The Argus this week and criticised the force for taking “no action whatsoever” until several people “embarrassed them” by calling a public meeting to “stop the harassment”.

He said the suggestion the racism began as a result of his release was “completely untrue”.

He even threatened legal action but did not respond when asked who this would be against.

He claimed not a “single racist act” took place until a year after he returned. He said when his nephews returned from Libya they were deliberately targeted by right wing groups.

Background

The serious case review was commissioned following the deaths of the two brothers, who both had contact with organisations across the city before leaving the UK.

Their brother Amer travelled to Syria just months before them and is thought to still be in the war-torn country. When interviewed by ITV in 2014 and asked if he would be coming home after his brothers had been killed, he said: "Not until all Muslim lands are liberated from infidels."

His Twitter account was last active in January.

The Argus asked uncle Omar Deghayes if he had heard from Amer but he did not respond.