Lawyers representing pro-Palestine campaigners charged with breaking protest laws in the UK described the case against them as “unlawful” as the government presented its case against them on Thursday.
Last year, Ben Jamal, the head of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), and Chris Nineham, vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, were charged with breaking the Public Order Act after a demonstration in London in which some protesters walked to Trafalgar Square in the direction of the BBC headquarters after the Metropolitan Police imposed restrictions which forbade them from marching.
Both activists pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Thursday, Kevin Dent KC, representing the British government, accused Jamal of “inciting crowds” to break the law and march towards the BBC's headquarters in central London, which had been the original intention of the protest organisers before the restrictions were imposed.
During proceedings, Dent showed the court a video of a speech made in January 2025 in which Jamal told a crowd that he and other protest leaders planned to attempt to walk towards the BBC’s headquarters to protest the corporation’s reporting of the genocide in Gaza as an example of “incitement”.
