Pro-Gaza activists detained across five cities as UK enforces terror ban on protest group Palestine Action
Campaign group Defend Our Juries, which had announced the rallies 'to defy' the ban, said 86 people had been arrested across five different cities.
They included four vicars, a lawyer, a civil servant, a social worker, a mechanical engineer and the daughter of a Polish resistance fighter, as well as veterans of the 1960s civil rights movement, the group added.
'We will not be deterred from opposing genocide, nor from defending those who refuse to be bystanders,' the group said in a statement, referring to accusations levelled against Israel over its war in Gaza.
The protesters were also taking a stand 'against the corruption of democracy and the rule of law', it added.
In London, the Metropolitan Police said its officers had made 41 arrests for 'showing support for a proscribed organisation'. Another person was arrested for common assault, the force added.
Footage showed police moving in on a small group of protesters displaying signs supporting Palestine Action. They had gathered at lunchtime at the steps of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament Square.
Greater Manchester Police arrested 16 people, while officers in the Welsh capital Cardiff detained 13, all for the same offence under the 2000 Terrorism Act, both forces confirmed.
'South Wales Police supports the right for people to make their voices heard through protest providing it is done lawfully,' said a police statement.
Police have warned that expressing support for Palestine Action would be a criminal offence after the ban kicked in last weekend. — AFP pic
Support now a crime
The other arrests occurred in the Northern Irish city Londonderry — also known as Derry — and Leeds, in northern England, according to Defend Our Juries.
They come a week after 29 similar arrests at protests staged last Saturday, mainly in London.
Since the Palestine Action ban kicked in on July 5, police have warned that expressing support for the group was now a crime, after a last-ditch High Court challenge failed to stop its proscription becoming law.
The government announced plans for the ban under the 2000 Terrorism Act days after the group's activists claimed to be behind a break-in at an air force base in southern England.
Two aircraft there were sprayed with red paint, causing an estimated £7 million (RM40.6 million) in damage.
Four people charged in relation to the incident remain in custody.
Palestine Action has condemned its outlawing — which makes it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison — as an attack on free speech. — AFP
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