The terrorism charge against Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh — better known by his stage name Mo Chara as part of the Northern Irish rap trio Kneecap — has been thrown out of court in the U.K. over a technical error.
Chara was charged in May over allegedly displaying a flag in support of proscribed organization Hezbollah at a gig last year. The 27-year-old denied the charge and has described it as political.
The musician — who also starred as himself in last year’s BAFTA-winning film “Kneecap” alongside bandmates Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí — appeared at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday.
“I find that these proceedings were not instituted in the correct form,” said chief magistrate Paul Goldspring, noting that a “six-month statutory time limit” had not been met. “The time limit requires consent to have been granted at the time or before the issue of the requisition. Consequently the charge is unlawful and null and this court has no jurisdiction to try the charge.”
At Chara’s previous court appearance on Aug. 20, legal arguments were heard over whether the charge was brought within the six-month time limit.
The case was brought about earlier this year after the Metropolitan Police studied video footage of the November concert at London’s O2 Kentish Town following statements Kneecap made during their set at Coachella. While on stage, they condemned what they described as Israel’s “genocide of the Palestinian people” and displayed a message that read “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine.”
Following the dismissal of the case, Kneecap’s manager Daniel Lambert celebrated on social media.
“We have won!!!!!!,” he wrote on X. “Liam Og is a free man. We said we would fight them and win. We did. (Twice). Kneecap has NO charges OR convictions in ANY country, EVER. Political policing has failed. Kneecap is on the right side of history. Britain is not. Free Palestine.”
Shortly after Chara’s first court appearance in June, Kneecap played a packed set at Glastonbury, which the BBC opted not to stream live due to the group’s growing controversy in the U.K. During the show, Kneecap led chants of “fuck Keir Starmer” and spoke out about the charges against Chara. “Mo Chara was in the courts, the Westminster courts this month,” said member Móglaí Bap of his bandmate. “It’s not the first time there was a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British justice system.”
Kneecap, who have long been supporters of Palestinian rights and consistently used their platform to speak out against Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza since the Hamas terror attack of Oct. 7, 2023, have described the charge as a “distraction from war crimes that the British state support.”
In a response to police allegations, Kneecap earlier this year asserted that they “do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah” and that alleged footage from the London concert had been “deliberately taken out of all context” as part of a “coordinated smear campaign” over their criticism of Israel.
Following the Coachella gig in February, Sharon Osbourne led calls for Kneecap’s U.S. visas to be revoked for what she called “hate speech.” Kneecap replied by saying: “Statements aren’t aggressive, murdering 20,000 children is though.”
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