\n\tProsecutors challenge court ruling on Kneecap rapper’s terrorism charge<\/p>\n
\tKneecap claims prosecution distracts from British role in Gaza conflict<\/p>\n
\tKneecap denies supporting Hezbollah, flag thrown on stage during gig<\/p>\n
At the end of the hearing, Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Linden, said: “You have obviously given us a great deal to think about. We will be reserving judgment.”<\/p>\n
He continued: “It means that the judgment will be published digitally. There won’t be, necessarily, a further hearing at which it will be read out or anything like that. It will be put on the internet.”<\/p>\n
He added: “It is probably not going to be necessary to have a further hearing because the consequences of whatever decision we reach will be fairly clear.<\/p>\n
“If we uphold the chief magistrate and agree with him, the order he made will stand.<\/p>\n
“If we do not… then it will go back so that he or one of his colleagues will proceed to hear it and deal with it.”<\/p>\n
British prosecutors sought to reinstate a terrorism charge against a member of Irish rap group Kneecap on Wednesday for displaying a flag of Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah at a London gig, after a court threw out the case last year.<\/p>\n
Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh, whose stage name is Mo Chara, was accused of having waved the flag of the banned militant group Hezbollah during a November 2024 gig.<\/p>\n
The charge was thrown out in September after a court ruled it had originally been brought without the permission of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General, and also one day outside the six-month statutory limit.<\/p>\n
But the Crown Prosecution Service said it would challenge the ruling and its lawyer Paul Jarvis told London’s High Court on Wednesday that permission was only required by the time \u00d3 hAnnaidh first appeared in court, meaning the case can proceed.<\/p>\n
Kneecap \u2013 known for their politically charged lyrics and support for the Palestinian cause \u2013 have said the case is an attempt to distract from what they described as British complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Israel strongly denies committing a genocide in the tiny coastal territory.<\/p>\n
J.J. \u00d3 Dochartaigh, who goes by DJ Pr\u00f3va\u00ed, was in court but \u00d3 hAnnaidh was not required to attend and was not present.<\/p>\n
Kneecap says prosecution a distraction<\/p>\n
\u00d3 hAnnaidh was charged in May with displaying the Hezbollah flag in such a way that aroused reasonable suspicion that he supported the banned group, after footage emerged of him holding the flag on stage while saying “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.<\/p>\n
Kneecap have previously said the flag was thrown on stage during their performance and that they “do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah”.<\/p>\n
The group, who rap about Irish identity and support the republican cause of uniting Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland, have become increasingly vocal about the war in Gaza, particularly after \u00d3 hAnnaidh was charged in May.<\/p>\n
During their performance at June’s Glastonbury Festival in England, \u00d3 hAnnaidh accused Israel of committing war crimes, after Kneecap displayed pro-Palestinian messages during their set at the Coachella Festival in California in April.<\/p>\n
Kneecap have since been banned from Hungary and Canada, also cancelling a tour of the United States due to a clash with \u00d3 hAnnaidh’s court appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prosecutors challenge court ruling on Kneecap rapper’s terrorism charge Kneecap claims prosecution distracts from British role in Gaza…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-284624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-latest-news-ticker"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115895685923808702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}