Ken Loach collaborator was allegedly wearing a T-shirt that referenced banned group Palestine Action
The award-winning Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty has been arrested in Edinburgh for wearing a T-shirt that allegedly referenced the proscribed protest group Palestine Action.
Laverty was attending a protest outside St Leonard’s police station in the city centre to support Moira McFarlane, a member of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who was due to be charged under section 13 of the Terrorist Act for wearing a T-shirt with the words: “Genocide in Palestine, time to take Action”.
Police Scotland confirmed that a 68-year-old man had been arrested under the Terrorism Act for “showing support for a proscribed organisation” and inquires were ongoing.
Laverty, a long-term collaborator of the film-maker and activist Ken Loach, has written screenplays for films including Carla’s Song, Sweet Sixteen and I, Daniel Blake. Their collaboration on The Wind That Shakes the Barley, about the Irish war of independence, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.
