TWO pro-Palestinian activists found guilty of harassing a government minister have had their convictions overturned in what their lawyer called “a great day for justice.”

Ayeshah Behit, 32, and Hiba Ahmed, 26, were found guilty of the charge against Alex Davies-Jones, the Labour MP for Pontypridd, at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court in June.

The pair challenged the ruling, denying they harassed Ms Davies-Jones and arguing they were exercising their right to free speech, at Cardiff Crown Court this week.

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke, the Recorder of Cardiff, said the prosecutions were not necessary and allowed both appeals during a hearing on Wednesday.

Behit and Ahmed had filmed a confrontation with Ms Davies-Jones, who had been campaigning in the village of Treforest, Rhondda Cynon Taf, in the lead-up to the general election, on June 26 last year.

As she made her way to the campaign meeting place, she saw the pair with leaflets which suggested she was a “full-blown supporter of this genocide” – referring to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Later, Behit and Ahmed put posters on the Labour office in Pontypridd — the base of Ms Davies-Jones’s campaign for the general election — that referred to politicians “enabling genocide.”

The court heard they also placed stickers reading “Alex Davies-Jones how many murdered children is too many?” outside her office.

Francesca Cociani, for the appellants, said: “Alex Davies-Jones as an individual and as a political figure come as a whole.

“But she was never targeted in her capacity as an individual, it wasn’t at her home address that she was targeted.

“This was political speech, it was very clearly to do with Labour Party policy and decisions.

“It was not only in a public place but it was within her constituency in the middle of a national campaign for the general election.”

The court heard it was not uncommon for Labour MPs to be accused of supporting genocide and the conflict in Gaza was a matter of significant public debate in the run-up to the election.

Ms Cociani said: “This is a great day for justice and common sense.

“It was clear that my clients were exercising their freedom of speech during an election, as they were entitled to do, in our free and democratic country.

“Their arrest, prosecution and conviction for harassment were an egregious affront on those rights and they are delighted to have finally been exonerated.”