{"id":40534,"date":"2025-09-27T07:05:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T07:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/40534\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T07:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T07:05:13","slug":"terror-case-thrown-out-on-technical-grounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/40534\/","title":{"rendered":"Terror Case Thrown Out on Technical Grounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA London court tossed out the terror case against Kneecap\u2019s Mo Chara<\/a>, with a judge ruling that the charge against the Belfast rapper was not properly filed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rapper Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh was accused of displaying a Hezbollah flag on stage at a November 2024 Kneecap<\/a> concert in London. But the London Metropolitan Police weren\u2019t made aware of the alleged incident until April 2025, after Kneecap sparked controversy<\/a> for their criticism of Israel and the war in Gaza<\/a> during their set at Coachella. \u00d3 hAnnaidh was then charged in May.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the summer, \u00d3 hAnnaidh\u2019s lawyers filed to have the case dismissed on technical grounds<\/a>, saying the charge was brought one day after the six-month limit for such charges expired. While prosecutors countered that the charge was brought in time, Judge Paul Goldspring ultimately sided with the defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJudge Goldspring noted that his ruling<\/a> was not about \u00d3 hAnnaidh\u2019s \u201cinnocence or guilt,\u201d only whether the court \u201chas jurisdiction to hear the case.\u201d In that regard, he wrote, \u201c[T] charge is unlawful and null.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe debate hinged on the particulars of how and when a charge is brought under the U.K.\u2019s Terrorism Act. \u00d3 hAnnaidh received notice of the charge on May 21, but his lawyers said that didn\u2019t count as an official charge because the Attorney General hadn\u2019t given prosecutors permission to bring the case yet. They claimed the charge was officially filed the following day, May 22, one day after the six-month limit expired.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the Crown Prosecution Service argued that the May 21 charge was valid because they didn\u2019t need the AG\u2019s permission, Judge Goldspring found that the \u201cproceedings were not instituted in the correct form, lacking the necessary DPP and AG consent, within the 6-month statutory time limit.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the BBC<\/a>, those gathered in the court applauded the ruling once it was handed down. \u00d3 hAnnaidh\u2019s lawyer, Jude Bunting KC, told the court, \u201cThis case was every bit unjustified as it was flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00d3 hAnnaidh addressed reporters and supporters gathered outside the court, saying, \u201cThis entire process was never about me. It was never about any threat to the public; it was never about terrorism \u2014 a word used by your government to discredit people you oppress. It was always about Gaza, about what happens if you dare to speak up. Your attempts to silence us have failed because we\u2019re right and you\u2019re wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe CPS said in a statement that it was \u201creviewing the decision of the court carefully,\u201d and noted that it could be appealed. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said, We are aware of the decision by the court in relation to this case. We will work with the CPS to understand the potential implications of this ruling for us and how that might impact on the processing of such cases in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A London court tossed out the terror case against Kneecap\u2019s Mo Chara, with a judge ruling that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,24803,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-40534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-kneecap","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}