Tons of of followers and pro-Palestinian supporters gathered for a 3rd time outdoors a London court docket with music and speeches from a short lived stage, to await information of Kneecap rapper Mo Chara in a carnival ambiance of solidarity and defiance.
The case, seen as a rushed try and silence Kneecap’s commentary on Gaza, was the end result of a pro-Israel foyer backlash to their Coachella set in April this 12 months — when Sharon Osbourne and business group Artistic Neighborhood for Peace efficiently pressured for the band’s U.S. visas to be revoked. The Met Police had been then introduced with footage in Might displaying Mo Chara holding a flag thrown on stage on the band’s Kentish City Discussion board present on 21 November 2024 — which led to him being charged with displaying help for Hezbollah.
The costs had been finally introduced on 26 Might 2025 — sooner or later previous the statutory six-month restrict — a degree Mo Chara’s defence argued made the case illegal from the outset. Prosecutors tried to argue that the clock ought to run not from the date of the Discussion board gig itself, however from the later second when consents had been obtained, successfully stretching the regulation to paper over a half-hearted prosecution. Chief Justice of the Peace Paul Goldspring rejected this outright, saying such reasoning “defied logic.” The listening to, moved at brief discover from Westminster Magistrates’ to Woolwich Crown Court docket after reported flooding, ended with Goldspring dismissing the case as “illegal and null.”
Exterior court docket, Mo Chara informed ecstatic supporters the method had “by no means been about me, by no means about terrorism — it was at all times about Gaza, about what occurs if you happen to dare to talk up.” He added: “Kneecap was by no means the story, Gaza was and sadly nonetheless is. We is not going to be silent. We stated we’d battle you in your court docket and we’d win — right this moment, we have now.” He went additional: “If anybody on this planet is responsible of terrorism, it’s the British state,” linking the case to Eire’s personal historical past: “As folks from Eire we all know oppression, colonialism, famine and genocide. We’ve suffered and nonetheless endure beneath ‘your empire’.”
Sinn Féin MP John Finucane, who joined a big contingent of Irish supporters from Belfast, London and additional afield, informed Louder Than Battle it was “an important day” not only for Mo Chara and his household however for all who had proven solidarity. He stated makes an attempt to censor or silence Kneecap had “fully and spectacularly backfired,” mentioning that the court docket appearances themselves had turn into a springboard for a louder message on Gaza. He stated he hoped the Kneecap case represented a sea change in British politics, however insisted it needed to be a part of a wider international shift: “We collectively want to face up towards the genocide. International locations who present arms, cowl, intelligence or equivocation for the disgraceful legal acts of the Israeli regime should finish their complicity.”
Phrases and images by Phil Ross. Extra writing by Phil will be discovered at his Louder Than Battle writer’s archive.
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