LONDON: The UK government sent the contact details of counterterrorism officials to the Israeli Embassy amid an investigation into a pro-Palestine demonstration, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
This has raised concerns about foreign interference in the UK\u2019s justice system, with legal experts questioning the involvement of Israeli officials in a British legal matter.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 9 last year, an email was sent by the Attorney General\u2019s Office to Israeli Deputy Ambassador to the UK Daniela Grudsky Ekstein.<\/p>\n
The email carried the subject line \u201cCPS\/SO15 (Crown Prosecution Service\/counterterrorism police) contact details.\u201d<\/p>\n
It followed the arrest, under the UK\u2019s Terrorism Act, of 10 Palestine Action demonstrators a month earlier.<\/p>\n
The demonstrators were arrested after protesting at an Israeli weapons factory based in the UK, with a further eight being arrested in November in relation to the same incident.<\/p>\n
The email was sent by Nicola Smith, the AGO\u2019s head of international law. It was obtained through a Freedom of Information request by The Guardian and came 11 days after Smith had met Grudsky Ekstein on Aug. 28.<\/p>\n
Aside from the subject line, the content of the email was redacted. Minutes of the meeting between the two officials are available but heavily redacted.<\/p>\n
Past disclosures of requests by the Israeli Embassy to the AGO show repeated attempts to intervene in individual British legal cases. The AGO has rejected intervention attempts by the embassy in the past.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Douglas Wilson, AGO director general, said in a response to a redacted request from the embassy: \u201cAs we noted \u2026 the Crown Prosecution Service makes its prosecution decisions and manages its casework independently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe law officers are unable to intervene on an individual case or comment on issues related to active proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lydia\u200b Dagostino from Kellys Solicitors, which is representing several Palestine Action activists, said: \u201cThe information disclosed in response to a FoI request clearly raises questions and needs further investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy, for example, did the Attorney General\u2019s Office provide the contact details for the Crown Prosecution Service, an independent body, to the Israelis?\u200b<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat further exchanges followed and was there discussions about ongoing criminal prosecutions?\u200b\u201d<\/p>\n
International lawyer and academic Dr. Shahd Hammouri\u200b raised concerns about the evidence obtained by The Guardian \u201cwhich indicates foreign influence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The use of anti-terror legislation by the UK government against the protesters has also caused alarm.<\/p>\n
In November, four UN special rapporteurs wrote to the government and expressed concern over the \u201capparently unjustified use\u201d of terrorism laws against the demonstrators.<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s Terrorism Act 2000 allows people arrested under the act to be detained for up to 14 days without charge.<\/p>\n
Those arrested in August were initially held for 36 hours without access to legal representation, the four experts warned. The protesters were then detained for a further seven days.<\/p>\n
\u201cCounterterrorism legislation, including the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Terrorism Act 2006, appears to have been increasingly used in the context of domestic support for Palestinian self-determination and political activism against the UK\u2019s foreign policy on the conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza,\u201d the letter by the four human rights experts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn particular, members of Palestine Action \u2014 a grassroots movement that organizes direct actions against Israeli weapons factories in the United Kingdom \u2014 have reportedly been arrested under counterterrorism legislation for conduct that appears to be in the nature of ordinary criminal offenses and does not appear to be genuinely \u2018terrorist\u2019 according to international standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 10 protesters arrested in August have had limited legal support, family visits, healthcare and religious rights while awaiting trial in prison, the letter added.<\/p>\n
In response to the communication between the AGO and Israeli Embassy, Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, said: \u201cThe timing of this correspondence coincides with the ongoing investigation into Palestine Action activists accused of dismantling the \u2026 site of Israel\u2019s biggest arms producer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems apparent that the Attorney General\u2019s Office has facilitated foreign interference in this case and potentially other ongoing criminal cases.\u201d<\/p>\n
A government source told The Guardian: \u201cIt has been routine under successive governments for AGO to help embassies get in contact with the relevant authorities purely for purposes of sharing information that could be relevant to a case.<\/p>\n
\u201cDecisions to prosecute, convict and sentence are, rightly, made independently of government by the Crown Prosecution Service, juries and judges respectively.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: The UK government sent the contact details of counterterrorism officials to the Israeli Embassy amid an investigation into a pro-Palestine demonstration, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. This has raised concerns about foreign interference in the UK\u2019s justice system, with legal experts questioning the involvement of Israeli officials in a British legal matter. On Sept. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-475400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n