UK court finds 3 women guilty over paraglider images

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2024-02-14T06:38:18+05:00 AFP

Three women who displayed images of paragliders as they marched at a London pro-Palestinian rally a week after the October 7 attacks were on Tuesday found guilty of a terror offence.


Heba Alhayek, 29, and Pauline Ankunda, 26, had taped images of paragliders -- the craft used by Hamas militants to fly into Israel and commit the attacks -- onto their backs.


Noimutu Olayinka Taiwo, 27, was also found to have stuck a similar image on the handle of a placard.


They were all charged under the Terrorism Act.


The central London march took place on October 14, seven days after the attack that killed more than 1,000 Israelis.


Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday said that "I do not find a reasonable person would interpret the image merely as a symbol of freedom."


But he added that "there's no evidence that any of these defendants are supporters of Hamas, or were seeking to show support for them."


Ikram therefore said he had "decided not to punish" the defendants, and handed each woman a 12-month conditional discharge.


"You crossed the line, but it would have been fair to say that emotions ran very high on this issue," he added.

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