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Tag: absurdity

  • Sarah Cotte acquitted: Jury rejects British state frame-up

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    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/09/19/zaaa-s19.html

    A jury at the Old Bailey on September 18 unanimously acquitted Sarah Cotte, the 22-year-old SOAS graduate prosecuted under Section 12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000 for allegedly supporting the proscribed organisation Hamas. Her “crime” was a speech defending the Palestinian people’s right to resist occupation and genocide.

    Sarah Cotte (right) with Jacob Winter, July 8, 2026

    …

    The absurdity at the heart of the prosecution’s case was that Cotte never mentioned Hamas at all. The organisation is proscribed in Britain, yet the speech used to justify the charge—delivered at a rally at SOAS on October 9, 2023—contained no reference to Hamas whatsoever. The prosecution’s response was to insist that she should have begun her remarks by declaring, unprompted, that she did not support a proscribed organisation. This would require any ordinary person speaking in public to pre‑emptively denounce whoever the state objects to.

    At every turn, the prosecution sought to erase the distinction between support for the Palestinian people’s right to armed resistance—recognised under international law and reaffirmed by the UN General Assembly in affirming the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples under colonial and foreign occupation—and support for a specific proscribed organisation.

    …

    The prosecution’s entire case rested on an extraordinary supposition: that a young woman supposedly supporting Hamas had left no trace of that support. No documents, messages, transactions, associations—not even the words of the speech itself—established the allegation.

    Prosecutor Rupert Kent asked the jury to believe Cotte was a secret sympathiser who concealed her politics so completely that she never once expressed them, even in the speech for which she was prosecuted.

    …

    See the original article at https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/09/19/zaaa-s19.html

    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel's genocide.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.

  • Nineham and Jamal found guilty in ‘dark day’ for civil liberties

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/nineham-and-jamal-found-guilty-dark-day-civil-liberties

    People taking part in a national march for Palestine on Whitehall in central London, January 18, 2025

    TWO pro-Palestine campaigners being found guilty of breaching protest conditions yesterday is “a huge setback for civil liberties,” supporters said.

    Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal and Stop the War vice-chair Chris Nineham made clear they will be appealing the verdicts as they criticised the “absurdity” of the case.

    Jeremy Corbyn called the verdicts “a dark day for civil liberties in this country.”

    District judge Daniel Sternberg found both Mr Jamal and Mr Nineham guilty of failing to comply with conditions imposed on the January 18 2025 Whitehall protest.

    Mr Jamal was in addition found guilty of inciting others to fail to comply following the trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

    A key part of the defence was that the conditions imposed on the protest, which prevented a march to the BBC, were unlawful.

    Defence barrister, Mark Summers KC, submitted a detailed legal argument outlining this case, including that the Court of Appeal had already ruled in a previous case that imposing conditions on the basis of “more than minor” disruption was unlawful.

    But Mr Sternberg told the court he was not obliged to give any reasons for his decision, instead handing it down in a 54-page written judgment, with a short summary for the media.

    He gave both men conditional discharges of 18 and 12 months respectively and ordered them each to pay £7,500 in costs.

    Speaking outside the court, Mr Nineham said: “We think this is an extraordinary and shocking decision and a huge setback for civil liberties in this country.

    “It is clearly part of an ongoing criminalisation of the Palestine movement in which people protesting against a genocide are being targeted by a British Establishment that is colluding with it.

    “It is an attempt to send a chilling message across society that people shouldn’t risk protesting. It is an attempt that will not stop us.”

    Mr Jamal said: “We will be appealing. We will be appealing because of concerns about how this trial has been conducted.

    “The judge did not see fit to deliver his judgment in open court.

    “I have always been of the view that in a court, justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/nineham-and-jamal-found-guilty-dark-day-civil-liberties

    Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
    Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/