Three face court over alleged plan to make Palestine Action ban unworkable
Three people who appeared in court to deny terror offences are alleged to have tried to organise mass meetings with the aim of rendering the ban on the group Palestine Action unworkable.
The charges related to plans for meetings in London, Cardiff and Manchester which were allegedly organised over Zoom meetings in July, August and this month.
Former government lawyer Timothy Crosland, 55, from Southwark, south London, appeared in the glass dock, along with gardener Dawn Manners, 61, from Hackney, east London, and David Nixon, 39, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
Terrorism Act
They are each accused of breaches of the Terrorism Act by addressing a meeting to encourage support for a proscribed organisation, and of assisting in arranging a meeting knowing the purpose was to support a proscribed organisation.
Emma Haraway, prosecuting, said the charges related to defendants using Zoom meetings to encourage people to attend mass gatherings in support of Palestine Action, which has been listed as a proscribed organisation, and thus overwhelm the police.
The defendants denied all the charges that they face and were granted conditional bail by District Judge John Zani.
They will next appear at the Old Bailey on September 26.
Three more defendants were due to be dealt with on Thursday afternoon.
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Use a flag to stir up race hatred and try to storm hotels, yeah, the PM says crack on, he would do the same.
Use a flag to try to protest genicide? Naughty. In the clink you go.
PM has got this terribly wrong.
Or rather whatever advisor has his strings.
Wales & Britain under Keir Starmer is fast becoming, if not already, a police state. I never would imagine that in 2025 protesting to stop Israeli genocide and wanting to see the end to the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians has now become a crime. Free speech and the right to protest is dead under Labour.
If the Group That Must Not Be Supported had targeted any other industry, they would have been dealt with in the same way as other protesters who damage property.
But arms manufacturers are special. So special that even discussing the possibility of encouraging others to protest against the banning of a group that protests against them must be made into a terrorist offence. Only more so given that our government’s entire economic plan now rests on promoting the death trade.