Irish rappers Kneecap are back in court, as Labour continue to pursue Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh on terror charges for waving a naughty flag. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) continues to act like an errant schoolboy making up excuses for not getting his homework in on time. You’d think six months would be sufficient to land the assignment on teacher’s desk, but their failure to get permission for prosecution within that timeframe meant the case against the Ó hAnnaidh was thrown out.
Now they’re back in the High Court appealing that ruling, giving the legal equivalent of “you’ve got the days mixed up, sir”. Their claim is that the ‘homework’ (i.e. the permission) only had to be in before the first appearance in court of Ó hAnnaidh. For the accused (better known by the name he performs under, Mo Chara), that date was 18 June 2025. Only the Director of Public Prosecutions or Attorney General can grant this permission.
Jude Bunting KC, arguing on behalf of the Kneecap man, reiterated the winning argument from October 2025 – that permission had to be granted by 21 May that year. That is, within six months of the alleged offence. Instead the attorney general provided it a day late, on May 22. The ‘offence’ in question was Mo Chara waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert on 21 November 2024.
Prosecuted for backing genocide resistance
This falls under anti-terror legislation, as the Lebanese resistance group are a proscribed organisation. We all know what a load of shite this particular aspect of British law is, given the banning of direct action group Palestine Action. The group dedicated themselves to targeting genocidal arms firms, rather than harm to people.
Both proscribed organisations have one thing in common – they took meaningful action to counter the British-backed Zionist holocaust in Palestine.
Bunting pointed out that if the Attorney General or Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) can wait until the matter is in court before granting permission to proceed, the defendant might have already pleaded guilty by post:
…thereafter being summarily convicted of a charge issued by the police, to which the Director of Public Prosecutions had not and might never have consented, and which the Attorney General had not or would not have permitted.
In other words, someone could be found guilty of terror-related charges without the additional oversight the permission is supposed to provide. Having such a conviction can mean severe disruption to a person’s life, such as travel restrictions. Of course, attorney general’s tend to be so politically compromised that their decisions to grant permission are always likely to be ideological rather than grounded in law.
The end result of today’s proceedings was Lord Justice Edis deciding he’d quite like to further deplete the reputation of the British (in)justice system by taking time to further wallow in the interminable shit he’d just been subjected to from the CPS. This means delivering a ruling some time in future, rather than terminating the whole farce straight away.
Court proceedings a sideshow next to ongoing Gaza holocaust
Such tortured legal debates seem an obscene indulgence next to the continuing torment suffered by the people of Gaza. So-called ‘Israel’ still bombs and restricts aid. Palestinians are crushed to death by collapsing buildings while attempting to escape the harsh winter. Kneecap’s statement on court proceedings brought that reality back to the fore:
Once again today was a distraction from the complicity of the British government in genocide. Today more Palestinians were murdered by Israel. More homes demolished and more children dead due to cold and lack of aid not permitted to enter by Israel. That is the ONLY thing about this whole witch-hunt worth talking about.
The West Belfast trio say “over a million pounds” has been wasted on the case thus far. It mirrors the extreme effort and cost Labour expend on a recurring perversion of the justice system – hounding people for upholding the law. This includes West Midlands police chief Craig Guildford, who will potentially be chased out of his job by Shabana Mahmood simply for doing it properly. Guildford’s offence is protecting his city from hordes of violent, racist land thieves vomited out of an apartheid fake-state.
Then there’s the 1000s of Palestine Action supporters arrested for upholding the Genocide Convention and demanding that their state prevent and punish the worst crime of all. Though their hunger strike has now ended, the efforts of those starving themselves for Palestine has pushed Britain a step closer to fulfilling its legal obligations.
Kneecap’s flapping of a flag isn’t quite in the same league, but every act of defiance weakens the British state’s strength in the eyes of the public. Every shot fired into its own foot in response compounds that perception. So say it loud:
Don’t stop speaking about Gaza.
Fuck Keir Starmer
Free Palestine
Free the 6 counties
Featured image via the Canary
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