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Grenfell bereaved describe inquiry evidence as ‘defensive’ and a ‘cover-up’ and tell authorities ‘the case is not yet closed’
Families of the 72 people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire have told authorities “the case is not yet closed” as a week-long testimony event came to an end.
At the fourth and final day of Grenfell Testimony Week in central London, the bereaved renewed their demands for justice, which they said had not yet been served in response to the 2017 tragedy.
Some also said that the evidence provided as part of the public inquiry into the fire, which completed hearings in 2022 but has not yet published its conclusions, showed a “defensive, cover-up, shift-the-blame culture” and people “running away from their responsibility”.
This month’s testimony week was set up after the resolution of more than 900 civil claims. It allowed claimants to speak directly to representatives from 22 companies that were defendants in the claim. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan also attended Friday’s session as an observer.
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A number of the defendants sent legal representatives on their behalf, while Arconic, which made the highly combustible cladding used on the tower, refused to attend and was given an empty table for the whole week.
Friday’s testimony began with a video from Sadik and Bedriya Jemal Kelbeto, who lost their sister Nura Jemal, 35, in the fire. Nura’s husband Hashim Kedir, 44, and their children Yahya, 13, Firdaws, 12, and Yaqub, six, also died.
Bedriya described her late sister as a “young intellectual”. Nura and her husband, who lived with their children in flat 192 on the 22nd floor of Grenfell Tower, were looking for a new rental house before the 2017 fire. “But what shall be done, they all died in that house.”
Sadik said “I just lost my mind” when he saw the disaster and failed to reach Nura on her phone. Images of the fire showed the tower “burning with gasoline”, he said. “How can such a fire occur in London?”
He criticised the London Fire Brigade, which told residents not to leave the tower “but they didn’t come and take them out”.
During the public inquiry, he said: “They all said ‘it’s not me’… It can’t be like this. Apologies are made after you’ve taken responsibility. They are running away from their responsibility.”
Mohammed Samimi then addressed the session in person with an interpreter. Mr Samimi lost his mother Fatemeh Afrasiabi, 65, and his aunt Sakina Afrasehabi, 68, in the fire.
He said that he and his family have suffered “extensive discrimination” by authorities because his mother was a guest staying with her sister on the night of the fire, rather than a Grenfell resident. Sakina lived in flat 151 on the 18th floor of the tower.
Survivors and the bereaved families feel the “suffering, pain and horror” of the night “with every cell of their body”, he said. “At the very least, we must provide these families with a better way to live.”
Attendees then heard from Masoud Shahabeddin in person, whose cousin Hamid Kani, 61, died in the tower. Hamid lived in flat 154 on the 18th floor.
Mr Shahabeddin said he and his cousin arrived in Britain in 1979 following Iran’s Islamic Revolution. “Humorous, ironic, amusing and witty,” Mr Kani’s acting and his satire irked Iranian officials and he was banned from the country.
In England, he later became a chef who specialised in Iranian cuisine. He said that Mr Kani loved the diversity of Grenfell’s residents, which he likened to “a delicious salad” with “herbs and spices”.
Mr Kani was “taken from us” in “senseless, malicious, avoidable circumstances”, Mr Shahabeddin said. Of the inquiry, he said: “All I have witnessed is a defensive, cover-up, shift-the-blame culture.”
An anonymous young woman then provided a film that described the loss of her partner in the fire. They had been planning their wedding when he died, she said. “I just find life now not joyful. I’m not the same person,” she added.
She felt that she had been “brushed to the side” and said that to be recognised as bereaved under English law, she would have to have been living with her partner when he died. This was not the case due to their religion and culture and the fact they were not yet married, she said. “I would have thought the law would have taken me into consideration,” she added.
“The case is not yet closed,” she told authorities. “You’re constantly reliving your trauma to get justice… Why am I still in 2017? I’m doing it to get justice.”
Scotland Yard has interviewed more than 50 people under caution as part of its investigation into the Grenfell fire. However, it said it will need to process the inquiry report before bringing any charges. The report is unlikely to be published before the summer.
