To Woolwich Crown Court, where the case against Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has been thrown out. The Irish rapper, who performs under the name Mo Chara, appeared on a single terror charge after being accused of pulling out a Hezbollah flag at a 2024 gig in Kentish Town’s O2 Forum. But the case collapsed today after the chief magistrate deemed that the proceedings against Ó hAnnaidh lacked the required consent of the director of public prosecutions and attorney general within the six-month statutory time limit. After explaining the technical error, Paul Goldspring told the musician: ‘These proceedings against the defendant were instituted unlawfully and are null.’
Addressing the courtroom, Goldspring said that he agreed with Ó hAnnaidh’s lawyers, who had argued that the attorney general had not given permission for the case to be brought against the defendant when the police informed him he would be charged with a terror offence on 21 May this year. The chief magistrate shut down arguments from the prosecution – that permission from the DPP and AG was not required until the defendant’s first court appearance, and also that permission was not necessary in order to bring a criminal charge – insisting those positions ‘defy logic’.
For his part, Mo Chara has slammed the charge as ‘political policing’, accusing his opponents of allowing a ‘carnival of distraction’ from the war in Gaza. And Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein, agreed – writing on social media today:
All charges have been dropped against Kneecap’s Mo Chara. I strongly welcome this decision. These charges were part of a calculated attempt to silence those who stand up and speak out against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Kneecap have used their platform on stages across the world to expose this genocide, and it is the responsibility of all of us to continue speaking out and standing against injustice in Palestine.
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