The Home Office has won a legal decision which means it can attempt to block a move by Palestine Action to have its ban under terror laws overturned.
The latest legal twist in the battle between the government and the protest group – now proscribed as a terror organisation – saw the court of appeal rule that Yvette Cooper can challenge the decision to grant a judicial review of the organisation’s proscription that was due to be heard in November.
The appeal ruling emerged on the same day six people appeared in court to deny terror offences after being accused of trying to organise mass gatherings with the aim of rendering the ban unenforceable.
It comes ahead of a planned protest on Saturday where organisers have said they are expecting more than 1,000 people to attend a rally near the Houses of Parliament.
An order by the court of appeal on 21 August, granted permission to appeal to the home secretary. In comments attached to the judgment, Lord Justice Underhill said: “I believe that the appeal has a real prospect of success.”
The hearing challenging the decision to review the proscription of Palestine Action will take place on 25 September. In July, lawyers for the group’s co-founder Huda Ammori won permission to challenge the ban, they argued the decision breached the right of free speech and acted as a gag on legitimate protest.
More than 700 people, many of whom have publicly declared support for Palestine Action, have been arrested by the Met since proscription on 5 July.
The home secretary banned the group under terrorism laws after paint was daubed on jets at RAF Brize Norton. Police said the act caused £7m of damage.
It means membership or support for Palestine Action is a crime that can lead to up to 14 years in jail. The government has said the ban is justified because it narrowly targets a group that was organising serious criminality.
The charges against six people relate to plans for meetings in London, Cardiff and Manchester which were allegedly organised over Zoom meetings in July, August and this month.
Tim Crosland, a former government lawyer from Southwark, south London, appeared at Westminster magistrates court, alongside Dawn Manners, 61, from Hackney, east London, and David Nixon, 39, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
In a separate hearing on Thursday afternoon, student Patrick Friend, 26, of Grange, Edinburgh, appeared in court along with Gwen Harrison, 48, from Kendal, Cumbria, and Melanie Griffith, 62, from Southwark, London.
Defend Our Juries, the group co-founded by Crosland, is organising this Saturday’s protest at Parliament Square in central London.
