Witness statement of: Malak Choueair Exhibit: None N o: Date: V21 4)20)3, I N THE GRENFELL TOWER PUBLIC INQUIRY F IRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF MRS MALAK CHOUCAIR I , Malak Choucair, date of birth will say as follows: - Background information 1 . This statement relates to tragic events on the 14 th June 2017, I understand that this is being dealt with in Phase 1 of the Inquiry and the other matters on which I would like t o comment on arc being dealt with in Phase 2 of the Inquiry. I am an active core participant in the Inquiry. 2 . 1 was born in and moved to the UK when I married Nabil =. My brother Bassem was married to Nabil's sister Nadia. Nabil and I have three children — our eldest daughter is. years old and the twins arelyears old. We were living in a t the time of the fire. 3 . We would go and visit our family, Sirria my mother in law, Nadia, Baseem my brother and my three nieces Miema (13 years), Fatima (11 years) and Zainab C houcair (3 years) in the tower every week. We spent the weekends together and s ometimes we would visit them during the week also. Sometimes we would stay the night in the tower. In the school holidays, we would go and stay with them and l ikewise they would come and stay with us at our flat. We would go for picnics in the park together. We would take my mother in law Sirria with us. She was involved in everything we did together. Sometimes I would sleep in her flat with hcr in flat 191 o f the Grenfell Tower. 1 IWS00001070_0001
I, Malak Choucair, date of birth will say as follows:-
Background information
1. This statement relates to tragic events on the 14th June 2017, I understand that this is
being dealt with in Phase 1 of the Inquiry and the other matters on which I would like
to comment on arc being dealt with in Phase 2 of the Inquiry. I am an active core
participant in the Inquiry.
2. 1 was born in and moved to the UK when I married Nabil =. My
brother Bassem was married to Nabil's sister Nadia. Nabil and I have three children —
our eldest daughter is. years old and the twins arelyears old. We were living in
at the time of the fire.
3. We would go and visit our family, Sirria my mother in law, Nadia, Baseem my
brother and my three nieces Miema (13 years), Fatima (11 years) and Zainab
Choucair (3 years) in the tower every week. We spent the weekends together and
sometimes we would visit them during the week also. Sometimes we would stay the
night in the tower. In the school holidays, we would go and stay with them and
likewise they would come and stay with us at our flat. We would go for picnics in the
park together. We would take my mother in law Sirria with us. She was involved in
everything we did together. Sometimes I would sleep in her flat with hcr in flat 191
of the Grenfell Tower.
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Leading up to the fire and the fire 14t1L June 2017
4. That night, I remember the call from Sawsan, Nabil's sister,
I was awake around 5
minutes before the phone call. It was around 3:00arn when Nabil received the
telephone call, I was shocked at who would ring at this time.
5. I remember Nabil screaming and he turned the television on to watch the news. He
told me to look at the televisions and I knew straight away it was the Grenfell Tower
on fire. He said he had to go there, he was screaming and looking for his car keys.
6. The children were asleep so I could not go with him. I kept calling Nadia and Bassein
on their phones but they did not answer. It was around 3:00am. I sent them text
messages and whatsapp messages but I could see they were not online. I kept trying
for one hour. 1 was screaming and crying all the time.
7. My eldest daughter heard me and woke up, she asked me what happened. She
shouted and said 'don't tell me this is the Grenfell Tower.' I prayed, I prayed for God
to let them escape from that building. I started to collapse, my legs gave way like they
had been cut off and I did not know what to do.
8. Nabil called me to say he arrived but he could not get into the tower. He said he was
away from the building and he could not gct in. I just didn't know who to speak to.
Nabil said there were lots of crowds of people, police and firemen but hc could not
get inside the tower. He was telling them that he was family. He was shouting and
screaming on the phone, he did not know what to do.
9. I waited for Nabil to call me every hour, He was scared about what would happen to
me as I was alone with the children, and I was scared about what would happen to
him. We kept ringing and checking on each other.
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PIA10. On the 14th June 2017, in the morning Nabil returned to collect me and all thrtP-of my
children and myself went together to look for the rest of our family as Nabil did not
want to leave me alone. Together we searched all the local hospitals and asked
whether any Choucair family members had been admitted but there was never any
news.
Aftermath of the fire
11. The following days become worse and worse. We never gave up but after three or
four days I told my parents back home M=. They did not believe me. Theydid not want to believe that this was true. They told us to keep searching and not to
give up.
12. Nabil kept searching. The police officers came to our house. They took our DNA and
I asked what this was for, it was hard to accept all of this. My parents came here
for two weeks after the fire and then within a few weeks the first body was
identified as that of my mother in law Sirria. After three days, they confirmed Nadia,
then Mirna, Baseem, Fatima and finally Zainab was the last to be confirmed as
deceased sonic six months later.
13. I am still struggling with this ordeal. It is hard knowing we will never see them again
and knowing they had such a cruel end to their lives. Now, after one year it has
become harder as the reality has hit me that they arc never coming home. In the
beginning I could not accept it, but now I realise they are not coming back it feels
even harder to cope with. I feel that each year that goes on it will feel become harder
as I will miss them more and more each day.
Statement of Truth
I believe that facts stated in this witness statement are true to the best of my knowledge.
