Palestine Action has failed to halt its proscription as a terrorist organisation after mounting a legal challenge against the move.
Huda Ammori, the co-founder of Palestine Action, brought the legal challenge against the Home Office over Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to ban the group under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The motion became law after midnight after it was signed off by Ms Cooper on Friday. Membership or support for the direct action group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The judge dismissed the request for an injunction ruling there was a strong public interest in bringing the order into force. A later higher court hearing was held after Ms Ammori lodged an appeal over the dismissal under the Lady Chief Justice. That challenge was also lost in a late-night ruling.
The move to proscribe Palestine Action was announced after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20 in an action claimed by Palestine Action. Police said it caused around £7 million worth of damage. The group claimed the aircraft were involved in supporting Israel in its military action in Gaza via the RAF base at Akrotiri in Cyprus.
At the hearing at the High Court in London on Friday, Mr Justice Chamberlain was asked to grant “interim relief” to Ms Ammori, which would have temporarily blocked the legislation from coming into effect. Raza Husain KC, representing Ms Ammori, told the court the move was “ill-considered” and an “authoritarian abuse” of power.
Mr Husain said: “This is the first time in our history that a direct action civil disobedience group, which does not advocate for violence, has been sought to be proscribed as terrorists.” He said Ms Ammori “was inspired by the long tradition of direct action in this country” and wished to take action “to prevent harm before it happens”.
The group had “never encouraged harm to any person at all” and that its goal “is to put ourselves in the way of the military machine”. But Mr Justice Chamberlain asked him: “What was the point of that if not to influence the UK government?”
The judge added that the action “was designed to influence the British government, to stop doing what the claimant thinks they’re doing from Akrotiri”. He said that an assessment on whether to ban Palestine Action under terrorist laws had been made as early as March, and “preceded” the incident at RAF Brize Norton.
Ben Watson KC, for the Home Office, told the High Court that Palestine Action could challenge the Home Secretary’s decision at the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission, a specialist tribunal, rather than at the High Court. “The serious issue to be tried is met in full by the adequate alternative remedy that parliament has provided,” he said.
Four people – Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Jony Cink, 24, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36, and Lewis Chiaramello, 22 – have been charged in connection with the incident.
They appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday after being charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage, under the Criminal Law Act 1977. They were remanded into custody and will appear at the Old Bailey on July 18.
Counter Terrorism Policing South East said on Wednesday that a 41-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender had been released on bail until September 19, and a 23-year-old man who was arrested has been released without charge.
