{"id":12211,"date":"2026-01-14T10:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12211"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:32:16","slug":"kneecap-supporters-gather-at-high-court-ahead-of-appeal-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12211","title":{"rendered":"Kneecap supporters gather at High Court ahead of appeal case"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Claire Graham<\/span>BBC News NI, Royal Courts of Justice in London<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Demonstrators outside the Royal Courts of Justice are carrying placards and Irish tricolours<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Supporters of rap trio Kneecap have gathered at the Royal Courts of Justice in London ahead of an appeal against the decision to throw out terrorism charges brought against one of the group’s members last year.<\/p>\n

The UK government is appealing the September 2025 decision to dismiss the case <\/a>against Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh, which was thrown out on technical grounds relating to how the charge against him was brought.<\/p>\n

He was charged in May<\/a> after allegedly displaying a flag in support of proscribed organisation Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, London, in November 2024.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, had denied the charge and described it as political.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh, pictured at an earlier court appearance<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Supporters arrived just before 09:00 GMT carrying Irish tricolours and Palestinian flags and various signs. <\/p>\n

At the court, a small courtroom is being used for the hearing. Extra chairs have been pulled in for the members of the public.<\/p>\n

The Sinn F\u00e9in MPs John Finucane and Paul Maskey are inside the court with Kneecap supporters, band manager Dan Lambert and J.J. \u00d3 Dochartaigh, aka DJ Provai, alongside an assortment of press. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lawyer Darragh Mackin (L) arrives with DJ Provai and Dan Lambert (R) – Kneecap’s band manager<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Finucane spoke to supporters of Kneecap outside the court.<\/p>\n

“We will continue continue to stand with Liam we will continue to stand on the right side of history,” the Belfast North MP said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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John Finucane MP speaking outside the High Court<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u00d3 hAnnaidh’s defence previously argued that the charge was not brought within the six-month time limit since the alleged offence took place.<\/p>\n

In September, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring told Woolwich Crown Court that the charge against \u00d3 hAnnaidh was “unlawful” and “null”.<\/p>\n

In his judgement, the chief magistrate outlined that permission was not given to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to consent to the prosecution until 22 May, a day after \u00d3 hAnnaidh was charged.<\/p>\n

If 22 May was considered to be the date of the charge, that was six months and a day after the London gig where the offence allegedly happened.<\/p>\n

The decision did not relate to any of the allegations \u00d3 hAnnaidh had been facing.<\/p>\n

Court papers state Wednesday’s hearing will hear the case of the DPP v Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh.<\/p>\n

The DPP argues that it was sufficient that the charge was brought before \u00d3 hAnnaidh made his first appearance at court on 18 June 2025 to answer the written charge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Following the ruling in September, Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh said he “won’t be silenced”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced in October 2025 that it would appeal the decision <\/a>“as we believe there is an important point of law which needs to be clarified”.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued on social media at the time, Kneecap said the appeal would be “a massive waste of taxpayers money, of police time, of court time”.<\/p>\n

The group added: “News of a CPS appeal against the ruling of their own judge is unsurprising.<\/p>\n

“It is unsurprising, because the whole process has not been driven by the police or courts, it has been driven by politicians backed up by the British media.”<\/p>\n

They said this is “political policing”.<\/p>\n

“There is no important point of law. The CPS have submitted nothing new in their appeal. What there is though is a state wide witch-hunt against Palestinian solidarity.”<\/p>\n

In a social media post earlier this month, Kneecap said: “It is the view of our legal team that there is not an iota of logic for this [appeal], it is without any sound legal basis.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Who are Kneecap?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The group go by the stage names of Mo Chara, M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap and DJ Pr\u00f3va\u00ed<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

#Kneecap #supporters #gather #High #Court #ahead #appeal #case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claire GrahamBBC News NI, Roya… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}