Home Office can appeal ruling on Palestine Action

The Home Office can appeal against the High Court's decision that banning Palestine Action as a terror group was unlawful, judges have ruled.

- HOLLY BANCROFT HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT

Three judges dealt a humiliating blow to the government on 13 February when they ruled that the proscription of Palestine Action under terror laws was “disproportionate”, and that it “did result in a very significant interference with the right of freedom of speech and the right to freedom of assembly”.

Now they have allowed the home secretary Shabana Mahmood to challenge their decision in the Court of Appeal.

Dame Victoria Sharp, Mr Justice Swift and Ms Justice Steyn concluded at the High Court that only a very small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to terrorism, and that the group’s acts had not crossed the high bar to make it a terrorist organisation.