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Palestine Action ban is lawful, Court of Appeal rules
Palestine Action ban is lawful, Court of Appeal rules 26 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Dominic Casciani , Home and legal correspondent and Amy Walker PA Media A number of people gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice on Monday as the ruling was made The government's proscription of Palestine Action as a terror organisation is lawful, the Court of Appeal has ruled. In one of the most significant rulings on national security in recent years, five of the most senior judges in the country overturned an earlier decision from the High Court that the ban had breached the right to protest and had been incorrectly taken by ministers. But five Court of Appeal judges concluded in a hearing on Monday that the ban had been "justified and proportionate". In a statement, the group's co-founder Huda Ammori, who brought the original legal challenge against the Home Office, said she intended to appeal the ruling to the UK Supreme Court. Palestine Action has remained banned since the High Court ruling in February to allow for further legal arguments and give the government time to consider an appeal. The proscription made it a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Thousands of people have been arrested at demonstrations in the months since the ban came into force in July last year. Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr and four other judges said that the government's policy on banning terrorism groups meant the home secretary had been legally entitled to decide the group should be proscribed. She said the judges recognised the proscription of an organisation like Palestine Acton was "highly controversial" and that it was supported by "many otherwise lawful citizens". But Baroness Carr added that it was "a fundamental mistake to overlook the fact that Palestine Action overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism". "It is not - as claimed - a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragettes, operating transparently in the open," she added. "It is a covert organisation which operates with secret cells to avoid the detection and prosecution of those using violence to destroy property and cause injury." She said the group had neither disowned nor condemned three incidents which took place before the ban was implemented and were judged by ministers to amount to terrorism. PA Media Baroness Carr said Palestine Action "overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism" The threats posed by Palestine Action had been the most important factor in the lawful decision-making, Baroness Carr said, including how the group clandestinely organised and targeted lawful businesses. That included defence firms involved in UK national defence and assisting Ukraine. The home secretary had been best placed to judge the impact of those threats, said the court. Ammori had challenged the ban on the argument that the-then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had not followed her o
