🚨 The trial of PSC Director Ben Jamal and Stop the War vice-chair Chris Nineham has concluded today and the judge will announce his verdict on April 1st. Defence barrister Mark Summers KC said the case was a “ludicrous invitation to criminalise legitimate protected political speech about the misuse of state power against people’s civil liberties."
He described their actions in the run up to the 18 January 2025 Palestine protest as nothing more than those of civic organisations engaging in political campaigning in a democracy. The police imposed conditions which had created widespread public criticism. On previous marches this had led to compromise with the police, but in this instance the police rejected that approach. Letters in support of the protest signed by members of Jewish organisations, Holocaust survivors, journalists, judges, politicians and others were disregarded.
Mr Summers emphasised that Chris and Ben were both highly respected movement leaders with a long and extraordinary record of successfully organising some of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in this country. These were all managed in cooperation with the police and in accordance with conditions, even when there was disagreement about them.
The court heard again how officers in the control room and on the ground were operating in complete ignorance of the flower delegation plan announced from the stage - that a small group would walk to the BBC to lay flowers or if stopped by police, lay them at the feet of police. This was a sensible, symbolic proposal to go some way towards achieving the original objective of the protest. It could only have succeeded with police permission and was not an unlawful intention.
At the police cordons the delegation clearly understood they had been permitted to proceed through police lines, being told on one police bodycam “You’ve got to filter through.” There was no communication to the contrary and no reason to to believe that the police were instructing them to do something unlawful. Met Commander Slonecki acknowledged in his evidence that existing police conditions were subject to ad hoc changes on the ground as necessary.
On the incitement charge against Ben Jamal, Mr Summers said that he “engaged in the very opposite of inciting people into a criminal breach of the conditions imposed by the police”. His criticism of the repression of the right to protest by the police was entirely legitimate and not an encouragement to break the law. The flower delegation represented “legitimate grievances channeled into a powerful, lawful act of political expression and symbolism.” Mr Summers ended by saying that the incitement charge was “utterly hopeless and you must acquit”.