The commercial manager of Manalo & White has been charged under the Terrorism Act for allegedly expressing support for Palestine Action, the banned protest group.
Steven Fox was among 42 people arrested on 12 July at a protest in Parliament Square staged by the campaign group Defend Our Juries. He has now been charged under section 13 of the Terrorism Act and will appear in court on 14 October.
The protest came a week after the government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group. The move made membership of the pro-Palestine group – which has used direct action to try to halt the sale of arms to Israel – or expressing support for it a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The government made the decision after members of Palestine Action broke into RAF Brize Norton in June and sprayed red paint into the engines of two aircraft, causing an estimated £7m of damage.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has defended the ban. Last month she described Palestine Action as “not a non-violent organisation” and claimed some of its supporters “don’t know the full nature” of the group. She added that there had been “clear security assessments and advice” prior to the group’s proscription.
Fox had attended an earlier protest on 5 July, but did not attend later demonstrations as he was prevented from doing so under his bail conditions. It is understood that he will also not be attending a large “Defend Our Juries” protest planned for this Saturday, 6 September.
Fox is among a group of four architects arrested at protests this summer in solidarity with Architects for Gaza, a group which is calling for the wider architecture sector to join its call for an immediate permanent ceasefire in the Gaza war.
The other arrested architects are Walter Menteth, director of Walter Menteth Architects, Nick Newman, founder of Studio Bark, and Jeremy Till, former head of Central Saint Martins.
It is understood that the trio were arrested at protests held after the one at which Fox was arrested, and are yet to find out whether or not they have been charged.