UK rights groups slam ‘authoritarian’ conviction of pro-Palestine activists

A coalition of leading British civil society groups has condemned the convictions of two prominent pro-Palestine leaders, accusing the United Kingdom of an “authoritarian” approach to protesters.

Ben Jamal, 62, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Chris Nineham, 63, vice-chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, were earlier this month found guilty of breaching protest guidelines during a January 2025 demonstration.

Representatives from eight organisations – including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and freedom of expression group Article 19 – said in a letter on Friday that the convictions “should alarm anyone who believes in our basic democratic human right to protest”.

“Jamal and Nineham’s convictions are a testament to how far this country has swung towards adopting authoritarian approaches to protest, and the damage successive governments have done to our democratic rights to freedom of speech and assembly,” the groups said.

Liberty, Friends of the Earth, Big Brother Watch, English PEN and Greenpeace also signed the letter.

The case is “emblematic of the sweeping powers police now possess to strangle peaceful protest”, they added.

On January 18, 2025, in the midst of a mass pro-Palestine rally in London, Jamal and Nineham reportedly led a group of people to lay flowers commemorating Palestinians killed in Gaza at the headquarters of the BBC. Police had declared the headquarters off-limits for protesters.

But video footage shows an initial line of police allowing the group to pass before the arrest of Nineham unfolded, according to the letter. Jamal then encouraged the group to drop their flowers and return to the larger demonstration.

The duo were charged with failing to comply with protest conditions, while Jamal was also convicted of inciting others to do so.

Jamal and Nineham have since been sentenced to 18 and 12 months’ conditional discharge, respectively, along with £7,500 ($10,000) payments apiece in prosecution costs. Both men are appealing.

The convictions come amid heightened international scrutiny of the UK’s alleged crackdown on pro-Palestine activism after last year’s ban on direct action group Palestine Action.

In its annual report released this week, Amnesty International said the UK “continued to use counterterror laws to restrict peaceful protests” and specifically cited the January arrests that led to Jamal and Nineham’s convictions.

The eight groups also warned of a “broader chilling effect” against protest efforts that have historically won “many of the human rights we cherish”.

“Recasting those same forms of action as inherently suspect risks forgetting that history and hollowing out the very rights that those struggles secured,” the letter concluded.