A bonfire with a replica mosque placed on top of it has been lit before the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) could remove the effigy.<\/p>\n
Police said it “commenced a significant and complex policing operation” to remove a “hate display”.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said the operation was at an “advanced stage when the bonfire was lit”.<\/p>\n
The bonfire, in Moygashel in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, has featured other controversial displays in the past.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the PSNI said: “Had the bonfire not been lit police would have secured the site and removed the offending material and seized it as evidence.”<\/p>\n
Police also confirmed a 56-year-old man who was arrested in connection with the effigy has been charged with incitement to hatred and is due to appear before Dungannon Magistrates Court on Friday.<\/p>\n
The PSNI added the investigation into this “hate motivated crime” is ongoing.<\/p>\n
Chief Superintendent Norman Haslett said: “Hate crime has no place in our society and will not be tolerated. <\/p>\n
“That is why tonight we commenced a proactive policing operation to take action and remove the hate display from Moygashel bonfire. <\/p>\n
“In advance of police arrival the bonfire was set alight a day in advance to prevent removal of the criminal material.”<\/p>\n
The effigy was placed on top of the pyre on Wednesday and the bonfire was due to be lit on Friday.<\/p>\n
The lighting of the bonfire comes after a day of condemnation with Justice Minister Naomi Long describing the effigy as a “nauseating spectacle of hatred” and called on the people who built the bonfire to take it down.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said it was as a “sickening and cowardly act of intimidation”.<\/p>\n
In its statement, Moygashel Bonfire Association said the display might “shock, offend or outrage”, but said those involved in making it were exercising their right to freedom of expression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bonfire with a replica mosque placed on top of it has been lit before the Police Service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-683382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683382","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=683382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}