A judge at Woolwich Crown Court has today dismissed charges against Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by his Kneecap stage name Mo Chara. The move comes after technical failures in how the prosecution brought the case forward. The matter was in relation to the alleged brandishing of a flag representing the so-called terror group Hezbollah, proscribed by the actual terrorists that run the British state.

In Woolwich Crown Court this morning, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring ended the exercise in time-wasting and profligate use of public funds by saying:

I find that these proceedings were not instituted in the correct form, lacking the necessary DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) and AG (Attorney General) consent within the six-month statutory time limit.

Kneecap go free

The dismissal stems from the attorney general Richard Hermer neglecting to grant permission for the case to proceed against the Irish rapper following police informing him of the trumped up charge on May 21. The procedural failing ultimately led Goldspring to rule that his court had “no jurisdiction to try the charge.”

Speaking outside court to a throng of supporters, Liam Óg thanked his legal team (which included Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who represented South Africa in their ICJ genocide case against so-called Israel) and went on to say:

This entire process was never about me, never about any threat to the public and never about “terrorism”, a word used by your government to discredit people you oppress.

It was always about Gaza.About what happens if you dare to speak up.As people from Ireland we know oppression, colonialism, famine and genocide.We have suffered and still suffer under “your empire”.Your attempts to silence us have failed, because we are right, and you are wrong.We will not be silent.We said we would fight you in your court and we would win.We have.If anyone on this planet is guilty of terrorism, it is the British state.Free Palestine!

Tiocfaidh ár lá [Our time will come].”

Darragh Mackin, one of the solicitors representing Liam Óg, then commented:

History will be kind to Kneecap, and to Palestine, because they are writing it.  The reality is that the British government have nothing in their entire arsenal that can break the spirit of a West Belfast rap group.

Charges have affected Kneecap’s ability to tour

The confected charges have acted as an impediment to the band’s ability to perform abroad. Genocide enthusiasts in the Canadian government are the latest pack of criminals to attempt to conceal their own misdeeds through cracking down on the musicians.  In a previous case, Nazi-holocaust revisionist Victor Orban also threw stones inside a glass house, and banned the group from his despotic jurisdiction for their non-existent anti-Semitism.  Such crackdowns impose real costs on bands, where touring is a vital source of income in an era of artist-gouging subscription services.

The performative attacks from this rogues’ gallery came in spite of the climbdown the group sadly embarked upon when media pressure mounted following publicity around their prior actions. In an April statement, the group said:

Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah.

Targeting of civilians

The ‘Party of God’, as Hezbollah translates, have been one of the few entities attempting to meaningfully hold the Zionist regime to account for their mass murder in Gaza and beyond.  In response, they have been met with a brutal response from the butchers in West Jerusalem as they’ve proceeded to kill 1000s of innocent Lebanese people. This includes use of the ‘Dahiya doctrine‘, an overt policy calling for:

the use of massive, disproportionate force and the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

First used in Lebanon in 2006, the criminal practice has reached its tragic current peak in the holocaust perpetrated against the civilian population in Gaza.  It was also seen in action during the illegal assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, with the obliteration of the entire surrounding area and all life within it.  The British government’s own article on Hezbollah, found on its list of proscribed groups, blurs the line between the group’s armed wing and its civilian departments, saying:

The group in its entirety is assessed to be concerned in terrorism.

This kind of framing has helped to legitimise the kind of indiscriminate attacks the Zionist entity has launched against the south of Lebanon as a whole, where Hezbollah essentially functions as a state within a state, providing many essential social services.

Judicial charade that obscured Britain’s participation in genocide

The trial against the Kneecap member is just one strand of a massive effort on the part of Britain’s political class to attack those peacefully attempting to prevent the worst crime imaginable, as the British state continues to participate in it.

From the start of the Zionist pseudo-state’s assault on Gaza, Royal Air Force (RAF) planes have:

flown near-daily from RAF Akrotiri, Britain’s sprawling airbase on Cyprus, for almost the entire duration of Israel’s assault on Gaza

sharing this intelligence with Netanyahu’s murderous regime.  A new US plane which took off from Akrotiri flew for “three hours over Khan Younis”, with Israeli airstrikes killing civilians in the area the following day.

F35 parts continue to be produced within British jurisdiction, before being sent into a global pool, ultimately ending up in the jets used by the Zionist entity to murder innocents across West Asia.

Furthermore, the practice of training Israeli soldiers at British army bases has continued, and number 10 has recently rolled out the red carpet for war criminal Isaac Herzog. Israeli Genocide Forces (IGF) soldiers with British passports have been allowed to return from contributing to the Gaza holocaust, with no action yet taken.

In the face of such overwhelming criminality, it shouldn’t take a technicality to halt proceedings against the likes of Mo Chara. Such charges ought not to be brought in the first place; rather it should be the likes of Starmer and Lammy that find themselves before a judge in The Hague.

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Sky News

By Robert Freeman

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