THE UK Government has been accused of presenting “absolutely bloody pathetic” arguments as a judge deferred ruling on demands for a review of the Palestine Action ban.
Westminster lawyers appeared in the Court of Session on Thursday to counter former diplomat Craig Murray’s bid to have a Scottish judicial review on the group’s proscription under terrorism laws.
Scotland’s highest civil court agreed in January to allow a judicial review on the matter but four months later reversed this decision following appeals from the UK Government.
Lord Young made avizandum pending written submissions at a hearing on Thursday, meaning he will reflect on the arguments privately. He is expected to announce his decision next week and campaigners supporting the case expect word as soon as Monday.
Murray blasted the UK Government’s counterarguments, saying they were focused on the cost to the taxpayer of having a review in Scotland ahead of the Supreme Court ruling on the Palestine Action ban.
The London court is expected to hold hearings on November 4 and 5 later this year.
Speaking to supporters in Edinburgh outside the Court of Session on Thursday, Murray said: “This is not justice, this is just sickening, this is ludicrous. We’re still in the fight, we’re still going.”
He told those gathered the UK lawyers’ “main argument” was that it would be “too expensive” to review the ban’s legality in Scotland and that the court also heard concerns about clerks needing security clearance to hear arguments from the security services.
Murray said: “To say that our case can’t be heard because the Court of Session doesn’t have the days available between now and November, it’s completely and utterly mad. Or there may not be clerks with the secret security clearance necessary to hear all the lies from the security service.
“And to say that we can’t have a court case because it is too expensive and that was actually the main government argument today, that it is too expensive for the courts to hear our case.”
He added: “This is astonishing. The arguments we were hearing in there were absolutely bloody pathetic.”
Speaking to The National afterwards, Murray added: “The UK Government argued in court that it would be too expensive to hold a judicial review hearing in Scotland on the legality in Scots law of the proscription of Palestine Action.
“Yet it is not too expensive for Police Scotland to arrest hundreds of peaceful protesters under this proscription, for the courts to hear hundreds of cases, and potentially for hundreds of entirely respectable people to be kept in prison. This is sickening.”
The Court of Appeal in London earlier this year struck down a ruling from the High Court that the ban on Palestine Action was “unlawful”, triggering further legal challenge from the group’s co-founder Huda Ammori.
She told The Guardian that the ban was “a vehicle for a far broader crackdown on expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people”, adding: “This unprecedented attack on free speech and the right to protest in this country is already having a chilling effect at a time when speaking out about Israel’s crimes could not be more urgent.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has previously said the UK Government would “robustly defend this appeal at the UK Supreme Court”, adding: “This decision does not affect lawful protest in support of the Palestinian cause, which remains a fundamental democratic right. There is a difference between supporting Palestine and supporting a proscribed terrorist group.”
