The landlord of an historic pub called The Saracen’s Head has told how he could be forced out of business after being targeted by a convicted terrorist over its ‘racist’ name.
Simon Belsey, 49, fears the 300-year-old hostelry which sits on the banks of the River Wye in Hereford will have to shut after he received two legal letters from Khalid Baqa.
It’s claimed the radical has drawn up a hit list of more than 30 pubs with signs he says have instilled ‘worry and fear’ in him because they ‘incite violence’.
Former truck driver Mr Belsey told how The Saracen’s Head is one of just three pubs remaining in the area after the cost-of-living crisis and Covid had a devastating impact on local traders.
He took over running the Grade I-listed pub just seven months ago with his Portuguese partner Vanda Oliveira, 56, but has been forced to work as a bus driver in the city three days a week because the establishment doesn’t make enough money on its own.
Now he insists an expensive legal battle could be the final nail in the coffin for the watering hole known affectionately by locals as The Saggs.
