Met Police issue warning after Palestine Action ban comes into force
Palestine Action lost a late-night Court of Appeal challenge on Friday, which sought to stop the protest group being banned, less than two hours before the new legislation came into force at midnight.
The designation as a terror group means that membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
It comes as a group said it is set to gather in Parliament Square on Saturday holding signs supporting Palestine Action, according to campaign group Defend Our Juries.
Proscription makes it a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT) to invite or express support for an organisation through chanting, wearing clothing or displaying articles such as flags, signs or logos, the Met said.
The Met also said it is a criminal offence to:
– belong, or profess to belong, to a proscribed organisation in the UK or overseas (Section 11 TACT);
– invite support for a proscribed organisation (Section 12(1A) TACT);
– express an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation (Section 12(1A) TACT);
– arrange, manage or assist in arranging or managing a meeting in the knowledge that the meeting is to support or further the activities of a proscribed organisation, or is to be addressed by a person who belongs or professes to (Section 12(2) TACT);
– wear clothing or carry or display articles in public in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that the individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation (Section 13 TACT);
– publish an image of an item of clothing or other article, such as a flag or logo, in the same circumstances (Section 13(1A) TACT)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Bid to raise triple killer's sentence to whole-life term to be heard this month
The Solicitor General's bid to have the sentence of triple murderer Nicholas Prosper increased to a whole-life order is due to be heard by the Court of Appeal later this month. Prosper was jailed for life with a minimum term of 49 years, less 188 days already spent in custody, in March after admitting killing his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, and siblings Giselle Prosper, 13, and Kyle Prosper, 16, at their family flat in Luton, Bedfordshire, on September 13 2023. The 19-year-old also admitted weapons charges after plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in the town. The Attorney General's Office (AGO) confirmed in April that the Solicitor General had referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal as 'unduly lenient', with a spokesperson stating that it would argue that Prosper 'ought to have been given a whole-life order'. Court listings show that the case is scheduled to be heard on July 16 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. After shooting dead his siblings and mother, and stabbing his brother more than 100 times, Prosper hid for more than two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street and showing them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges near playing fields. He had bought the firearm and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders after forging a gun licence. Sentencing Prosper at Luton Crown Court in March, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said that she would not impose a whole-life order because Prosper was stopped from carrying out the school shooting, having murdered his family earlier than he intended after his mother woke up. She continued that while he was 'indisputably a very dangerous young man', the risk to the public was met with a life sentence. As well as the murder sentences, Prosper also received concurrent jail terms of life with a minimum term of 18 years for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, three-and-a-half years for buying the gun and one year for possession of a kitchen knife, to run concurrently. Rules were changed in 2022 to allow younger defendants aged 18 to 20 to receive whole-life orders in exceptional circumstances, but no one in that age bracket has received the sentence since then. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said during sentencing that a whole-life term could only be given to an 18 to 20-year-old if a court deemed 'that the seriousness of the combination of offences is exceptionally high'. She continued: 'Despite the gravity of your crimes, it is the explicit joint submission of counsel that a lengthy, finite term will be a sufficiently severe penalty, and this is not such an exceptionally serious case of the utmost gravity where the sentence of last resort must be imposed on an offender who was 18 at the time and is 19 today.' The case was referred to the Attorney General's Office by the shadow justice minister Kieran Mullan, who said the killings were 'the most serious of crimes'.
Metro
2 hours ago
- Metro
Scotland Yard apologises for 'failing' Mohamed Al Fayed victims
Detectives probing former Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed have apologised to his alleged victims for their distress. In a letter leaked to the BBC, the officer leading Scotland Yard's investigation said she was 'acutely aware the case is especially distressing to all those who have suffered'. 'Not least due to the fact that the main suspect will now never directly face justice for his crimes, and for this I am truly sorry,' Detective Chief Superintendent Angela Craggs wrote. 'Some of you may have heard, and perhaps experienced dissatisfaction in previous investigations into Al Fayed by the Met and hence may have little confidence in us.' The force said it could not comment further because it would 'jeopardise criminal or other proceedings'. The BBC reported Scotland Yard would send a video statement addressing questions from the victims individually rather than arrange a meeting due to privacy issues. Two complaints against the Met over its handling of allegations against the former Harrods boss will be investigated by the force itself under the direction of a watchdog. The Met is currently reviewing a total of 21 allegations that were made before Mr Al Fayed died in 2023, and referred two of these to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in November. Alleged victims have repeated calls for a public inquiry into what happened. More than 100 alleged victims have contacted police to say they were sexually abused by the tycoon, the youngest of whom is thought to have been 13 at the time. A number of allegations were made against him while he was still alive. Investigators twice sent files for a charging decision to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) – once in 2008 relating to three alleged victims and again in 2015 linked to one other. A total of 150 complainants came forward following the airing of a BBC documentary, Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, in September, the force said. More Trending On another three occasions – in 2018, 2021 and 2023 – the CPS was asked for what is called early investigative advice, but the matters were not pursued further by police. In November, the Met confirmed that detectives were investigating more than five people who may have facilitated the former Harrods boss in his alleged sexual abuse of dozens of women and girls. Al Fayed's network of suspected enablers is said to have included members of his personal security team, the luxury department store's PR staff and medics hired to test victims for sexually transmitted diseases before he raped them, according to the BBC. The force is also facing allegations of police corruption, with The Guardian reporting that officers were accused of taking bribes to help him persecute staff and avoid accusations of abuse. MORE: Killer driver who ploughed car into wedding party guilty of murder MORE: Hope Rowe jailed for life for stabbing woman to death at child's party in east London MORE: PE teacher faces court for 13 sexual offences against two girls and a boy
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Students who back Palestine Action risk jail, universities told
Universities have been told they need to take urgent steps to stop students 'unwittingly' becoming terrorists by supporting Palestine Action, now that the group has been banned. Vice-chancellors should make sure students are aware of the harsh consequences if they support Palestine Action's policies, display its insignia or promote its activities, according to Lord Walney, the former government anti-extremism tsar. In a letter to Universities UK (UUK), which represents 142 institutions, Walney said there was a 'clear danger that individuals may be unwittingly lured into expressing support for an entity whose methods are not only criminal, but now formally recognised as terrorism'. Lord Walney, a former Labour MP, was anti-extremism tsar for the previous government EUAN CHERRY FOR THE TIMES He urged UUK to alert all its members of the legal implications of the proscription of Palestine Action, encourage university leadership and student unions to issue clear guidance on activities that are now offences under the Terrorism Act and engage with the Home Office to ensure universities have accurate advice on their legal responsibilities. Palestine Action was proscribed last week, adding the direct action group to a list of terrorist organisations including al-Qaeda, Islamic State and Hamas. On the same day the government also banned two white supremacist groups. Being a member of, or inviting support for, Palestine Action is now a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Palestine Action has been responsible for direct action protests and the government began proscription steps after the group took responsibility for vandalising two aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20. On Monday 29 people were arrested, including a priest, for attending a protest in Westminster to support the group, with some holding placards that read: 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.' There have been widespread protests by pro-Palestinian students at universities, often involving encampments. An encampment to support Palestinian rights was established outside King's College, Cambridge last year LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES UUK said it had 'written to our member vice-chancellors to alert them to the fact that Palestine Action has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000, effective from Saturday July 5, and to their obligation to ensure that staff and students are aware of this.' Walney said: 'Palestine Action's deliberate strategy has long involved drawing students into criminal activity under the guise of legitimate protest, preying on the understandable sympathy for Palestinians felt by large numbers of young people to find recruits. • 'We will not comply,' vows Palestine Action as bid to delay ban fails 'With its formal proscription, the legal threshold has shifted: expressions of support, including wearing insignia, arranging meetings, or promoting the group's activities — whether knowingly or through naivety — now risk serious sanction with students at risk of acquiring a criminal record for a terror offence. This risk clearly exists whatever any individual may think of the government's decision to proscribe Palestine Action. My view is that the group's systematic campaign of sabotage justifies proscription, given the fact that property damage is included in the legal definition of terrorism.' He said that he fully supported the rights of students to engage in robust political debate. In the letter to Vivienne Stern, chief executive of UUK, Walney wrote: 'Universities UK has an important role to play in protecting both freedom of expression and student welfare within the bounds of the law.' As well as ensuring there was clear guidance about the new boundaries of the law, he said that UUK should review risk management protocols on student societies and public events where Palestine Action slogans or tactics could appear.
