MINISTERS are applying political pressure on the CPS to prosecute Palestine Action supporters after the High Court ruled that the Home Office acted unlawfully when it banned the direct action group under terror laws last summer, Defend Our Juries said today.

Prosecutors have expressed discomfort with pressing ahead, in spite of the ruling, with terror cases against nearly 700 defendants who were charged for holding placards in mass protests against the ban, according to a source closely involved with the legal discussions.

The insider from Defend Our Juries, which organised the protests, added that prosecutors have produced evidence packs that fail to even photograph defendants holding an allegedly illegal sign, which they say shows an institutional reluctance to prioritise the cases.

Labour MPs criticised Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood after she said that she would “fight” the High Court ruling, which last Friday said that the proscription was unlawful but would be upheld pending an appeal by the government.

Scotland Yard stopped making arrests while the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that it is up to individual courts to decide whether to continue or adjourn specific cases.

Defend Our Juries’ comments come ahead of a pivotal case management hearing for the first three people to be charged with terror offences for allegedly supporting Palestine Action at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 3.

It will be held by Chief Magistrate Judge Goldspring, who has already sparked fury after the other defendants found out via an Associated Press report that their cases will be adjourned. 

It is thought the case will give an indication of whether the judge will press ahead with the charges for the other defendants, who have all pleaded not guilty to offences carrying up to 14 years in jail.

A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said: “Thousands of people of conscience who held paper signs are now stuck in a legal limbo, waiting to find out if the CPS will prosecute them for ‘terrorism,’ despite the order being wholly unlawful.

“The number of procedural errors made so far in the prosecutions, and the lack of clear evidence presented against individuals, makes a mockery of the criminal courts. 

“If the director of public prosecutions and CPS are willing to so blatantly go against both a High Court ruling and the public interest, questions need to be asked about where this pressure is coming from?

“Are they being pushed by the government to continue the persecution of those who speak up for Palestine and who have worked to expose the corrupt and unjust nature of the proscription of Palestine Action?”

The CPS, which announced today that six Palestine Action activists will face a retrial over a break-in at Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems’ Filton site in August 2024, declined to comment. 

The Home Office was contacted for comment.

Labour MP Andy McDonald MP told the Star: “There should be an immediate moratorium on all current charges relating to the holding of signs or otherwise expressing support for Palestine Action.

“The government should not be appealing the decision of the High Court but if they insist on persisting with that ill-advised course of action, then following the rational response of the Met Police not to make any further arrests, the government should make sure no further public resources are devoted to investigations, charges or prosecutions pending the determination of the appeal.”

Stop the War Coalition vice-chair Chris Nineham told the Morning Star: “This is part and parcel of the government’s ongoing attack on the right to protest and specifically on the Palestine movement, which has experienced an unprecedented use of police powers to restrict our marches, culminating in the trial next week of me and Ben Jamal on charges relating to an entirely peaceful protest.”

The Palestine solidarity coalition leaders face a trial at the Westminster court next Monday over alleged public order offences during a national march for Palestine in central London on January 18 2025.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn MP, John McDonnell MP and the general secretaries of the Public and Commercial Services and TSSA unions will be among the speakers at a protest outside the court at 9am.

A spokeswoman for Momentum said: “Last week the High Court ruled it was unlawful to proscribe Palestine Action, but Labour ministers are shamefully still doubling down. 

“The government must scrap its plans to appeal the High Court’s decision and instead launch an independent inquiry into how this deeply flawed, authoritarian decision was taken in the first place.”

Communist Party general secretary Alex Gordon said: “The spectacle of the judicial and executive branches of the British state wrangling over the wisdom of criminal prosecutions of hundreds of peaceful citizens under anti-terror laws for holding up signs proclaiming their opposition to genocide is a mark of how low Keir Starmer’s government has sunk.

“There can be no conceivable legal rationale for continuing these farcical prosecutions, which only confirm what any intelligent observer already knows, that these are political prosecutions pursued by a reactionary Home Secretary at the behest of the arms companies.”

Your Party MP Zarah Sultana said: “This is what happens when the state stretches terrorism powers to crush dissent and legitimate protest.”