Rights groups slam UK police over threats to arrest Palestine protester

Threats by armed police to arrest a pro-Palestine protester in Kent have been slammed by rights groups, who labelled the action as unlawful and an abuse of police powers.

The incident, which occurred on Monday, saw police threaten Laura Murton, 42, with arrest for expressing views supportive of Palestine Action, which was placed on a terrorist list by parliament earlier this month.

Murton, however, was only holding a Palestinian flag and signs reading "free Gaza" and "Israel is committing genocide", with no mention of Palestine Action.

Amnesty International slammed the actions of Kent Police in a post on X, saying that the organisation earlier had warned that the proscription of Palestine Action would have a "chilling effect on freedom of expression".

"Now we see armed officers threatening to arrest people with Palestine flags and Free Gaza placards. There is no lawful basis for this police behaviour," Amnesty added.

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) said on Friday that they had written to both Kent Police and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper demanding an investigation into the matter.

"As expected, the ban [on Palestine Action] is being misused to police the support for Palestine more generally, and any opposition to Israel's genocide in Gaza," the group said.

Jewish Voice for Labour said on Thursday that Thanet4Palestine had written a letter of protest to Kent Police, saying: "We are outraged by this interaction between Police and citizen and consider it little more than a blatant act of intimidation."

The group added that "we consider it a grave abuse of police powers to threaten arrest on the basis that an officer held a 'reasonable belief' that she expressed an opinion supportive of that organisation".

"There was no evidence on which such reasonable belief could be founded."

In a video released of the incident, an officer incorrectly said to Murton that "mentioning freedom of Gaza, Israel, genocide, all of that all come under proscribed groups, which are terror groups that have been dictated by the government".

He also claimed that the phrase "Free Gaza" was "supportive of Palestine Action", and therefore falls under section 12(1A) of the terrorism act, thus committing an offence.

Murton later told The Guardian that the incident terrified her and "this was the most authority, authoritarian, dystopian experience I've had in this country, being told that I'm committing terrorist offences by two guys with firearms".

In a statement carried by The Guardian, Kent Police appeared to defend the officer's actions.

"Under the Terrorism Act it is a criminal offence to carry or display items that may arouse reasonable suspicion that an individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation such as Palestine Action," the statement read.

The incident has since spurred on further protests in Canterbury, with people flying Palestinian flags and chanting "raise your fists, rise, resist", according to local outlet Kent Online.