{"id":641004,"date":"2026-06-16T04:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641004\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T04:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:11:14","slug":"arrested-protesters-devastated-after-appeal-court-rules-ban-on-palestine-action-is-lawful-palestine-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/641004\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrested protesters devastated after appeal court rules ban on Palestine Action is lawful | Palestine Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesters arrested for allegedly supporting Palestine Action have expressed anger at the court of appeal\u2019s decision that the ban on the direct action group was lawful<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Monday, five judges overturned the high court\u2019s February ruling that proscription was unlawful, meaning that more than 3,000 people who have been arrested under the Terrorism Act since proscription, more than 700 of whom have been charged, could now face prosecution.<\/p>\n

While the Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, has said she will appeal to the supreme court, any prospect of the ban being quashed and prosecutions being discontinued \u2013 which seemed a possibility after the high court judgment \u2013 is off the table for now.<\/p>\n

One of those charged, Deborah Hinton, 82, a former magistrate from Truro, Cornwall, described the judgment as \u201cdevastating and shocking\u201d. She said of a prison sentence under the Terrorism Act: \u201cObviously I\u2019m very upset, I\u2019m very nervous, but I couldn\u2019t do anything else but do what I did. I didn\u2019t have a choice. We are heading towards an authoritarian state, and as I saw it, it was my duty to take a stand.<\/p>\n

Deborah Hinton OBE at home in Gorran Haven, Cornwall. Photograph: Jim Wileman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cOne did hold out hope that the government [would] see sense. We haven\u2019t got enough money to have a proper defence system for this country and yet they\u2019re wasting millions and millions on this ridiculous prosecution of people holding placards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vast majority of those arrested were holding placards saying \u201cI oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action\u201d at Defend Our Juries demonstrations.<\/p>\n

Marianne Sorrell, 81, from Wells, Somerset, who was held by police for almost 27 hours after being arrested, during which officers forced their way into her house and searched it, described Monday\u2019s judgment as a travesty of justice. \u201cI\u2019m thinking very seriously of getting arrested again for the same offence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Marianne Sorrell. Photograph: Sam Frost\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t up to now, because it meant going to London but I\u2019m so incensed by what\u2019s going on and very perturbed that I\u2019m thinking I will go to London if the action to support Palestine Action is to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Hinton and Sorrell also expressed outrage about the lengthy custodial sentences imposed on Friday on four Palestine Action activists who smashed up drones and other equipment at an Israeli arms manufacturer\u2019s UK factory after a judge ruled that there was a \u201cterrorist connection\u201d to their offending. Hinton described it as \u201ccompletely out of all proportion and of anything that one could expect in a civilised country like ours\u201d.<\/p>\n

Father John McGowan, 75 \u2013 who was one of 532 people arrested at a demonstration in Parliament Square on 9 August last year, said he too was angry and disappointed by the court of appeal\u2019s decision but it did not affect how he felt about what he did.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Being arrested and charged] is an inconvenience for me compared to what the people are currently experiencing in Gaza, and still are,\u201d he said. \u201cMy judge is myself, my conscience, I\u2019m at peace with myself and with what I\u2019ve done and so let\u2019s see what happens. I\u2019m prepared even to go to prison. I don\u2019t think that will happen but I\u2019m prepared to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her written judgment on Monday, the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, said: \u201cWhen the severity of the effects of proscription on [an individual\u2019s rights to freedom of expression and assembly] are balanced against the importance of the objectives of protecting national security and the rights and freedoms of others \u2026 we find that the latter in this case outweighed the former.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court of appeal\u2019s decision also prompted renewed criticism of the ban from human rights groups.<\/p>\n

Tom Southerden, Amnesty\u2019s legal programme director, said: \u201cWe have long said that the banning of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was a grave misuse of sweeping counter-terrorism powers with serious consequences for human rights, and today\u2019s outcome does not alter that assessment. It is fundamentally disproportionate to treat direct action protest as terrorism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe images of people from all walks of life \u2013 from nurses and pensioners to military veterans \u2013 being bundled into police vans for peacefully holding placards will be long remembered as a deeply shameful chapter in our history.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters arrested for allegedly supporting Palestine Action have expressed anger at the court of appeal\u2019s decision that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-641004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}