A convicted stalker was arrested by armed police in a dramatic scene as Barack Obama arrived in Glasgow to give a major speech.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that Finneston cafe owner Akram Arebi admitted having a firearm in the basement flat below his business when police carried out a raid.
The incident made national news ahead of the former President's arrival at the Scottish Event Campus during COP 26, and came just months before he was convicted of conducting a two-year campaign of terror against a frightened woman.
READ MORE: 'Well-liked' Glasgow cafe owner terrorised woman in two year stalking campaign
Details of the incident were laid bare in evidence last week, with the court told that Arebi was originally held by police on November 6, 2021, on an unrelated matter, and granted bail.
A firearms search warrant was then granted for his Finnieston business premises and his basement home on the city's Argyle Street.
His flat was noted to have exposed wiring, water, and electricity running from the cafe above.
Due to safety concerns, the property was not searched until the following day.
Fiscal Jessica McGowan said: "Officers recovered a bullet within a green colour ceramic pot located on a shelf of a unit in the bedroom.
"This was manufactured in Romania.
"The article is considered live ammunition suitable for use in appropriately chambered rifles such as the AK-47 and light machine guns.
"Also during the search officers recovered a rifle leaning against the wall within the storage room."
Officers packaged the firearm and it was sent to the ballistics department.
It was described as a "spring operating air rifle" manufactured by the British company Webley and Scott.
Miss McGowan: "It was designed to discharge air gun pellets and it was in working order."
Arebi - who has a previous conviction for a firearms offence - was found not to have a licence for the gun.
He was arrested again on November 8 during the dramatic police swoop on Breadalbane Street.
When quizzed, Arebi mentioned the start of the Libyan civil war and had obtained the bullet from a fellow countryman living in Scotland who had moved to Saudi Arabia.
He claimed this person had intended it for a necklace, but Arebi requested it to be used as an ornament.
Miss McGowan added: "He stated that he obtained the air rifle from (a man) who resides in Girvan.
"He was having a clear out of unwanted items and stated that Arebi may wish to use it to create a sculpture.
When cautioned and charged for the bullet he replied: "It was just an ornament, as I told you."
In relation to the gun he said: "I was just going to use it for love and peace, it was an antique."
Ryan Sloan, defending, told the court that the rifle had been lying in the storage room for some time.
The lawyer added: "He wanted to make a sculpture out of it - peace and love was the intention.
"He did not know it was illegal to possess these items.
"He had a public arrest and a loss of his business.
"Due to the nature of his business, it could not suffer that and it is a matter of regret he lost his livelihood as a result of his arrest."
He pled guilty to possession of an air weapon and having live ammunition with the relevant certificate and Sheriff Shona Gilroy sentenced him to wear an electronic tag for 84 days and imposed a 7pm and 7am curfew.
The incident unfolded a year before Arebi was jailed for stalking a woman in Glasgow.
He bombarded her with messages, threatened to post intimate photos online, and secretly tracked her to a restaurant for more than two years between April 2017 and September 2019.
Arebi also pled guilty to being threatening and abusive to another woman as well as a man he sold a laptop to in 2016.
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