Police swarm protesters outside UK’s Royal Court of Justice
Palestine Action, the activist movement that the British government wants to label a “terrorist group”, says its protests will not stop after police swarmed those gathered outside the top court in central London.
The group is set to be banned after a High Court judge refused to temporarily block it being designated as a terror group. This would make supporting Palestine Action punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the government’s plan.
In the end, the bid for judicial review by Palestine Action was lost. They will not be able to have that government ban postponed, as they had intended.
They argued in court that to make them a proscribed group … would be disproportionate as the group itself does not advocate violence.
[The High Court decision] does raise quite a few issues in terms of what exactly civil disobedience means now, what strategies of civil disobedience now are proscribed or are allowed, and fit within the remit of the law.
But what’s certain as of now is that, as of midnight, Palestine Action will be designated a proscribed group and therefore, any overt support of it, being a member of it, [will] possibly carry a jail sentence of up to 14 years.
Palestine Action appeals High Court decision
A bid by lawyers representing Palestine Action to appeal against a High Court judge’s refusal to temporarily block an imminent ban on the group has begun at the Court of Appeal.
The Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Lewis and Lord Justice Edis are hearing the challenge against the decision of Justice Chamberlain, who earlier on Friday ruled against granting “interim relief” to block the ban becoming law over the weekend.
Barristers for the UK’s Home Office are opposing the appeal bid, having also defended the bid for the temporary block.
The hearing is being held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
