UK court throws out Kneecap terror charge quoting technicality

Irish rapper Mo Chara was charged for displaying a Hezbollah emblem during a London performance past year.

A London tribunal has thrown retired a panic complaint against a subordinate of the Irish rap radical Kneecap.

Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said connected Friday the lawsuit against Liam Og O hAnnaidh should beryllium thrown retired owed to a method mistake successful the mode the complaint against the Belfast-based rapper was brought. The lawsuit has go highly charged with critics citing it arsenic an illustration of a clampdown connected escaped speech.

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Goldspring ruled that O hAnnaidh, 27 – initially charged nether the Anglicised sanction Liam O’Hanna and who performs nether the signifier sanction Mo Chara – had been charged aft the six-month bounds to bring specified a charge, which tin lone beryllium dealt with by the magistrates’ court.

“The complaint is unlawful and null and this tribunal has nary jurisdiction to effort the charge,” the justice said.

O hAnnaidh was charged successful May for displaying a Hezbollah emblem during a London performance successful November 2024.

Since the United Kingdom banned Hezbollah arsenic a “terrorist” organisation successful 2019, it has been an offence to amusement enactment for the group.

O hAnnaidh had denied the offence, saying the emblem was thrown connected signifier during the group’s performance. The set has branded the ineligible process a “witchhunt”.

Revellers with Palestinian and different flags stitchery arsenic Kneecap performs astatine the Glastonbury Festival astatine Worthy Farm successful Pilton, Somerset, Britain, connected June 28, 2025 (File: Reuters)

Following the ruling, O hAnnaidh hailed the court’s decision. He declared that it showed attempts to muzzle the band’s enactment for Palestinians had failed.

“It was ever astir Gaza, astir what happens if you situation to talk up … Your attempts to soundlessness america person failed, due to the fact that we’re close and you’re wrong,” helium said successful beforehand of a assemblage of supporters gathered extracurricular the court.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “We volition enactment with the Crown Prosecution Service to recognize the imaginable implications of this ruling for america and however that mightiness interaction connected the processing of specified cases successful the future.”

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill welcomed the ruling. “These charges were portion of a calculated effort to soundlessness those who basal up and talk retired against the Israeli genocide successful Gaza,” she wrote connected societal media.

Kneecap has been accused by several countries of glorifying coercion owed to statements made successful enactment of Palestinians amid Israel’s warfare successful Gaza.

Hungary and Canada person banned the radical from entry, and Germany and Austria cancelled immoderate of their concerts.

Kneecap has accused critics of trying to soundlessness the set due to the fact that of its enactment for the Palestinian origin passim Israel’s warfare successful Gaza, which has killed much than 65,000 radical and reduced overmuch of the enclave to rubble since it began successful October 2023.

They accidental they bash not enactment Hezbollah and Hamas, nor condone violence.