Peter Tatchell yesterday accused stewards at a pro-Palestine march of using the police to ‘silence’ his criticism of Hamas.
The veteran human rights activist was holding a placard which read ‘Stop Israel genocide! Stop Hamas executions!’ when he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police.
Yesterday Scotland Yard admitted that the 73-year-old had been detained in ‘error’ at the march on Saturday after ‘concerns were raised with officers by stewards from the Palestine Coalition protest’.
Mr Tatchell was taking part in a protest organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to commemorate Nakba Day (the anniversary of the displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war).
He said he had attended the protest to ‘condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but also to expose Hamas’s execution of Palestinian critics’.
