Press TV journalist Latifa Abouchakra was reportedly arrested by the UK’s West Midlands Police on Sunday on her way to address the launch meeting of the Anti-Zionist Movement (AZM), the Iran-funded outlet and AZM confirmed.
“Today, in an act of political violence, West Midlands Police arrested Palestinian mother and journalist Latifa as she arrived to speak at our event,” AZM published in a statement. “The zionist lobby’s malicious assault on AZM puts their power over Britain on full display.”
West Midlands Police confirmed that they arrested two people in Birmingham, including a 35-year-old woman, on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.
The Tehran-funded journalist had earlier gained notoriety after celebrating the October 7 attacks against Israel and for her regular rants on “Jewish supremacy” in the United Kingdom.
On 7 October 2023, as Hamas massacred more than 1200 people and abducted hundreds more, she posted a video claiming “nothing will ever be able to take back this moment, this moment of triumph, this moment of resistance, this moment of surprise, this moment of humiliation on behalf of the Zionist entity. Nothing. Ever.”
Abouchakra had been set to address the opening meeting of the anti-Israel organization alongside sacked University of Bristol professor David Miller and Rahmeh Aladwan, a doctor who is currently suspended for antisemitism.
Miller later wrote on social media that the arrest was “More evidence of the police working directly for the Zionist regime” and claimed “Genocidal Jewish supremacists tried to cancel the meeting.”
The AZM event, scheduled at Birmingham’s Old Print Works, was canceled after police became aware that the group posted on Instagram that it was “unapologetically pro-Armed Resistance,” according to Press TV.
Experts have long warned about the risks posed by Iranian state media in Britain, noting both the radicalizing impact it can have and also how it can provide journalist coverage for persons or funds to enter and exit the UK.
UK finally acting against Iranian agents, expert says
Dr. Lynette Nusbacher, a former British Army intelligence officer and one of the architects behind two of the UK’s National Security Strategies as part of Britain’s National Security Secretariat, told The Jerusalem Post, that the UK was likely finally taking action against Tehran’s “agents” as it has become increasingly impossible to ignore the human rights violations committed by the Islamic regime.
Nusbacher, who earlier warned The Post about Houthi and Iranian media shell companies, shared, “It used to be a struggle for experts and advocates to get the UK government to recognize the extent to which Iran used the UK as a base for their influence operations. I’d like to think that hard work by academics and investigators is finally paying off [but] I don’t think that’s it… I think that the obscenity of Iranian government action against their own people means that it’s no longer possible to ignore the dogged open-source investigators.”
“For the last year, we’ve seen increasing evidence that Iranian government media are operating in Britain as agents of influence, and this is the response,” she concluded.