Kneecap have responded to reports that prosecutors will appeal against the decision to throw out a terrorism charge against member Mo Chara.
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The rapper, real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, had been charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag and shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a gig in London last November.
However, it was thrown out last month thrown out on a technicality relating to the way in which it was brought about.
The Chief Magistrate told the court that the charge against was “unlawful” and “null”, with Jude Bunting KC saying: “This case was every bit unjustified as it was flawed,” and
In a statement (via BBC), a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesperson said: “We are appealing the decision to dismiss this case as we believe there is an important point of law which needs to be clarified.”
Kneecap responded in an Instagram post this afternoon (October 7), calling the news of an appeal “unsurprising” and saying, “This whole process has not been driven by the police or the courts, it has been driven by politicians backed up by British media. This is political policing.”
They continued: “There is no ‘important point of law’. The CPS have submitted nothing new in their appeal. What there is though, is a state-wide witch-hunt against Palestinian solidarity. The media were gleefully informed about this appeal before we were.”
The trio described it as a “massive waste of taxpayers’ money, of police time, of court time,” before adding: “We are NOT the story. Yesterday, 104 Palestinians were murdered in Gaza and hundreds more maimed as Israel commits genocide … This is aided and supported by the British state. We will fight you in your court again. We will win again.”
After Chara’s terror charge was dropped last month, he said he was considering taking legal action himself against the British state. Speaking to Virgin Media about the damage to his reputation and loss of earnings that the case has had on him and his career, he said that legal action was “definitely something we’re going to look into.”
For their part, Kneecap have consistently denied supporting Hamas and Hezbollah, both proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK, and have said that they don’t incite or condone violence.
Chara described the case as a “carnival” and a “distraction”, explaining: “Even if it had’ve went to court, we would’ve won anyway. It was a complete circus, it was a carnival, a distraction from what’s actually going on. And the more that they dragged this out, the longer they could keep this in the news, rather than talk about the actual issues.”
