Belfast musician Mo Chara, whose real name is Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, is accused of displaying Hezbollah flag at gig
The criminal case against the Kneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh should be thrown out, a court has heard.
Ó hAnnaidh, who performs with the band under the stage name Mo Chara, will have to wait until 26 September, when the chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, will rule on whether he has the jurisdiction to try the case.
The Belfast musician was greeted by hundreds of supporters as he arrived at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday for a three-hour hearing.
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During the hearing on Wednesday, his defence team argued the case should be thrown out, citing a technical error in the way the charge against him was brought.
Brenda Campbell KC told the court the attorney general had not given permission for the case to be brought against the defendant when police informed him he was to face a terror charge on 21 May. She said consent was given the following day, but that meant the charge fell outside the six-month timeframe in which criminal charges against a defendant can be brought.
The prosecutor Michael Bisgrove said permission was not required until the defendant’s first court appearance and that permission did not need to be sought in order to bring a criminal charge.
dizzy: I can anticipate Mo Chara appealing if it comes to that. It’s almost as ridiculous as people charged under terrorism laws for holding a placard! It’s widely accepted that it’ s the UK government that needs to be charged and prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAVote Labour for Genocide.
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An exterior view of the District Court in east Jerusalem, on November 22, 2021. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]
Israel’s attorney general on Friday rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to postpone his corruption trial for two weeks, local media said, Anadolu reports.
Netanyahu had asked the Jerusalem District Court to delay his trial, claiming that he needed to focus on other matters following Israeli attacks on Iran, including the issue of returning Israeli captives from Gaza.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the court also rejected Netanyahu’s request and decided to keep the scheduled hearing set for next Monday.
The court judges determined that “the schedule presented by Netanyahu to try to delay his trial sessions does not justify canceling the hearings,” it said.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara earlier said that the reasons detailed by Netanyahu in his request “cannot justify canceling two weeks of hearings.”
As a result, Netanyahu is expected to appear before the court on Monday as planned.
Reacting to the decision, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticized both the attorney general and the judges.
“The Attorney General’s Office and the judges of Netanyahu’s government insist on being small dwarfs, lacking any strategic vision or understanding of reality,” he wrote on X.
“They seem determined to help us highlight for the public the destructive and dangerous corruption that has taken hold of the judicial system, and the urgent need to reform it,” he added.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also criticized the court’s decision, calling it a “detached and miserable decision.”
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi echoed the criticism, saying: “They live in their own world, isolated… Shame on them!”
Likud lawmaker Avichai Buaron said Netanyahu should simply notify the court and the attorney general that “his duty to the state and the national interest outweigh the need for four more evidentiary hearings, and that he won’t attend in the next two weeks.”
For several months, Netanyahu has appeared before the court to respond to the charges against him but the sessions were halted during the recent Israel-Iran war that began on June 13 and lasted for 12 days.
On Thursday, Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump for calling to cancel his corruption trial, a move that sparked wide controversy and division in Israel.
Supporters of Netanyahu welcomed it, while the opposition urged Trump not to interfere in Israel’s judicial process.
Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust that could lead to imprisonment if proven.
In January, Netanyahu began interrogation sessions related to Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, which he denies. The attorney general filed an indictment related to these cases at the end of November 2019.
Case 1000 involves Netanyahu and his family receiving expensive gifts from wealthy businessmen in exchange for favors.
Case 2000 concerns alleged negotiations with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, to gain positive media coverage.
Case 4000, considered the most serious, involves providing facilitation to Shaul Elovitch, the former owner of the news site Walla and a telecommunications company Bezeq, in return for favorable media coverage.
Netanyahu, whose trial began on May 24, 2020, is the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant in the country’s history.
He also faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, with the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 over atrocities in Gaza, where over 56,300 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023.
Members of the California national guard and other law enforcement at a protest in Los Angeles on Sunday. Photograph: Daniel Powell/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Lawsuit claims administration ‘trampled’ on states sovereignty by bypassing Governor Gavin Newsom
The state of California will file a lawsuit against the Trump administration for “unlawfully” federalizing the state’s national guard and deploying its troops to quell immigration protests, the attorney general Rob Bonta said on Monday.
Previewing the lawsuit, Bonta claimed the Trump administration “trampled” on the states sovereignty by bypassing the governor Gavin Newsom – a move he said was “by definition, illegal” and escalated what began on Friday as scattered protests and erupted into unrest.
“This was not inevitable,” Bonta said of the demonstrations that built over the weekend following immigration raids across Los Angeles, adding: “There was no risk of rebellion, no threat of foreign invasion. No, inability for the federal government to enforce federal laws.”
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaking on February 13 from the Industrial University of Santander in Bucaramanga. Photo: Presidencia Colombia
The delay in the election of the Attorney General at the center of the ongoing tensions with the right, was highlighted by the United Nations Human Rights office and IACHR
Colombia’s Supreme Court will convene on February 22 to elect the country’s Attorney General (AG). The Supreme Court had already convened on two occasions, January 25 and February 8, for the same purpose but was unable, or as some allege, unwilling, to elect one of the three candidates proposed by President Gustavo Petro for the post back in August. The court’s refusal to elect one of Petro’s candidates for the post, has been at the center of what some have termed a “soft coup” or a destabilization campaign against the left-wing president’s government.
Petro himself said on February 2 that the court’s refusal to move forward was “institutional rupture that has reached its most desperate point, because the mafia does not want to control the entire sections of the Attorney General’s office that I have put in danger for having presented a shortlist of decent women.”
The Attorney General in Colombia is part of the judicial branch of power and has the role of investigating and accusing those who are alleged to be responsible for committing crimes.
On Monday February 12, the mandate of former AG Francisco Barbosa expired. Barbosa was appointed by former far-right president Iván Duque who is also his close friend from university. The AG has had open conflict with the current president, telling Blu Radio in May 2023 “I think Gustavo Petro is irresponsible” when Petro had warned of possible foul play in the AG’s investigation of members of Petro’s Historic Pact party.
On January 25, the same day that the Supreme Court was first set to elect his replacement, Barbosa ordered a raid of the Bogotá office of the Federation of Colombian Educators (FECODE) over allegations of improper contributions to Gustavo Petro’s presidential campaign. The move was widely condemned by social movements and trade unions in the country as being politically motivated.
With his term up, Barbosa’s deputy prosecutor and close ally, Martha Mancera, has taken up the post in the interim – until the Court makes its decision. Mancera has been named in different scandals, including an alleged cover up of an agent from the Attorney General’s investigative body who was involved in drug trafficking and arms trafficking.
On Wednesday February 14 at an event in the Industrial University of Santander in Bucaramanga, Petro said, “The government doesn’t agree that the Attorney General should be handed over to people with dubious reputation, that could have links, it seems and according to media investigations, with organized crime.”
International bodies such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) also expressed concern over the delay in the Supreme Court’s deliberations. In a statement published on February 13, the body said that a further delay in the selection of an AG, “could weaken the Colombian justice system” and that the Supreme Court must “fulfill its constitutional duty”.
On February 14, the UN Office of Human Rights in Colombia also declared that it was closely following the AG election process. In its statement, it highlighted the role the AG plays in “guaranteeing access to justice, democratic consolidation, and Rule of Law”, and as such, it “encourages the Supreme Court to conclude the process of selection of the AG in the shortest time possible”.
Both statements by the IACHR and the UN alluded to allegations by the right-wing that the citizen protests in dozens of cities across Colombia on February 8 to demand that the Court carry out its constitutional obligation, were an attempt by Petro to subvert rule of law and disrupt the Supreme Court’s process. The allegations are based on a video from a protest in Bogotá which depicts a couple of demonstrators attempting to rush the barricade at the gates of the Court while other protesters are leaving the site. Many analysts have stated that those depicted in the video were seemingly right-wing infiltrators.
Nevertheless, right-wing media has launched full scale attacks on protesters and Petro, and the Attorney General’s office claimed “possible crimes were committed” and opened up a special investigation.
Added to the growing pressure on Petro’s administration, is the direct attack on his foreign minister, Álvaro Leyva, who is under investigation by the Ombudsman and suspended from his position for three months over allegations of irregularities in the bidding process for passport processing. In reality, Leyva had taken steps to confront a private firm, Thomas Gregs and Sons, that had a major contract with the state for processing passports and had control over a significant amount of the population data in the country.
Petro had said that renowned jurists called the suspension of the foreign minister unprecedented and he termed it “institutional rupture”.
With growing pressure on the court to fulfill its constitutional mandate, the Supreme Court’s session on February 22 is set to be an important date, while the movements and social organizations that mobilized and campaigned to put Petro’s government of change in office have vowed to defend it at all costs.
