Moazzam Begg to challenge ‘unlawful’ pro genocide charge at court

• 2-3 July 2025: UK Parliament votes to add Palestine Action to the list of proscribed organisations. 
• 5 July 2025: Palestine Action officially becomes proscribed (the order comes into force). 
• 9 August 2025: Moazzam Begg arrested under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for taking part in the Lift The Ban civil disobedience action in Parliament Square.
• November 2025: Legal challenge (judicial review) against the proscription is ongoing. 
• 3 February 2026: Notice of charge dated to Moazzam Begg.
• 17 February 2026: Notice received in the post by Moazzam Begg. 
• 2 March 2026: MB to appear in court. 

London – CAGE International Senior Director and former Guantanamo prisoner, Moazzam Begg, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday the 2nd of March 2026 in relation to holding a Palestine Action poster during a mass civil disobedience protest in Parliament Square on the 9th of August 2025.

Begg was one of 532 people arrested at the demonstration. The protest marked the largest single-day arrests under terrorism legislation in British history.

Although the charge document is dated within the six-month statutory time limit for bringing summary offences, the notification of charges - with his name misspelt, was received by Begg in the post via recorded delivery on 17th February. This was after the 6 month deadline, and after the ban of Palestine Action was ruled unlawful. 

Under the law, proceedings of this nature must be properly initiated within six months. A document dated within time but served only after expiry would render the charge unlawful. In comparable cases, prosecutions have fallen where service occurred outside the statutory limit. The court appearance letter was sent despite Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring saying, "there is no merit in hearing the cases" until the outcome of the government's appeal against the High Court

This charge arrived after the High Court had ruled the ban on Palestine Action to be unlawful, and after the 6 month statutory deadline had passed. It suggests a system either overwhelmed by mass protest arrests or recklessly pursuing cases that should not proceed. We're unaware of how many others received similar notifications, but one can only conclude they've been sent out of malice or incompetence.

The case has intensified concerns about the expanding use of counter-terror legislation to suppress political dissent. For more than two decades, CAGE International has warned that exceptional counter-terror powers would ultimately erode fundamental freedoms and be used to criminalise dissent. CAGE is currently challenging the proscription of Hamas and has consistently argued that the UK’s proscription regime is deeply politicised. It is clear that organisations and individuals associated with Palestinian resistance or solidarity are targeted under expansive counter-terror powers, while protest and political expression are clamped down.

Moazzam Begg, International Senior Director at Cage International, said: 

"I'm no stranger to police and CPS incompetence when it comes to terrorism prosecution. In February 2014, the last time I stood in the dock at Westminster Magistrates, I was facing terrorism charges and imprisoned on remand for 8 months, only to be declared an "innocent" by West Midlands Police before trial. 

"This time, however, I'm not alone. I'm honoured to be amongst thousands of ordinary British citizens facing terrorism charges because we felt compelled to do something to help stop a genocide and ethnic cleansing by the Israeli apartheid state. 

Britain trains, funds, arms and excuses Israeli war crimes at every level. That includes allowing Israeli companies like Elbit Systems to manufacture weapons systems and technology for the Israeli military.  And, unlike its barbarous military, we are facing charges not because of what we did but because of what we wrote. "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action." 

When Britain flouts international law and arrests its own citizens en masse in favour of a foreign nation that is charged at the world's highest courts with the very worst crimes against humanity, it has already lost. 

The shambolic nature of our arrests and attempted prosecutions will again fail. This time spectacularly so."

Supporters, community members and observers are expected to attend court on Monday in solidarity with Begg and others arrested for peaceful protest.