Pro Palestine Campaigner Arrested and Charged For Terror Offences

A pro-Palestine activist from Leicester was arrested and charged by police for terror offences including expressing support for Palestinian organisations online.

Majid Freeman, 36, was released on bail and is due to appear at Westminster magistrates’ court on July 24.

Hamas and other Palestinian groups are proscribed organisations in the UK and other Western countries. Supporting or glorifying their actions are illegal.

Freeman is a community activist and was arrested by Leicestershire police for raising awareness of and campaigning against the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

A study by the world renowned Lancet this week estimated that the number of Palestinians killed could be as high as 186,000.

Moreover, there is mounting evidence of Israeli soldiers routinely shooting children and civilians, setting homes ablaze, and leaving corpses on the streets.

Although Freeman’s arrest is part of a general policy of repression of Palestinian solidarity in Britain, it is also the latest episode of the local establishment specifically targeting him for his activism.

Freeman’s viral video of Jon Ashworth, a senior ally of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, proved instrumental in Ashworth losing his seat to Shockat Adam in Leicester South in last week’s General Election.

In 2022, Freeman highlighted police failings when ultra nationalist RSS-Hindutva groups marched through Muslim majority areas of Leicester.

Despite video footage of Freeman protecting an innocent Hindu man from being attacked, Leicester police prosecuted him under section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986. Freeman was convicted of the offence last month.

Muhammad Rabbani, the Director of CAGE, an advocacy group, said: “The first few days of a Starmer-led government has seen the arrest of an anti-genocide activist in Leicester, the arrests of seven students protesting Israeli genocide at the SOAS encampment, and continuing silence in the wake of Israeli slaughter of Palestinians with the full political and military support of Britain.

“Like Julian Assange, the only crime Majid Freeman is guilty of is exposing Western complicity in genocide. The establishment’s tactics of intimidation will not work. The people will continue to stand with the Palestinians against the Western-sponsored Israeli genocide.”

As reported by Daily Mail in a statement, Leicester Police said: “A man has been charged following a warrant being executed at an address in Cecil Road, Leicester.

“Majid Novsarka, also known as Majid Freeman, of Cecil Road, Leicester, has been charged with encouragement of terrorism and supporting a proscribed organization.”