Liam O’Hanna, 27, is accused of breaking British regulation by waving a Hezbollah flag at a live performance in London final November.
A member of the Irish rap group Kneecap has appeared in a London courtroom over an alleged “terrorism” offence, as tons of of his supporters gathered exterior the constructing.
Liam O’Hanna, who performs underneath the title Mo Chara, entered Westminster Magistrates’ Court docket on Wednesday morning, a month after he was charged for allegedly waving a flag of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah at a live performance in the UK’s capital final November.
Below British regulation, it’s unlawful to show articles selling banned teams like Hezbollah.
Kneecap, a Belfast-based group who rap in English however principally in Gaeilge (Gaelic, the Irish language), have rejected the cost of “terrorism”.
“We deny this ‘offence’ and can vehemently defend ourselves. That is political policing. It is a carnival of distraction,” the band wrote on X final month.
O’Hanna instructed London’s Broad Awake Pageant final month that it was an try to “silence us”.
The band has lengthy spoken out in opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying the nation is committing “genocide”, one thing the Israeli authorities denies.
In courtroom on Wednesday, the prosecution steered the case was not concerning the rapper’s stance on Israel and Palestine.
“He’s nicely inside his rights to voice his opinions and his solidarity, as is anyone else,” prosecutor Michael Bisgrove mentioned.
“The allegation on this case is an entirely completely different factor and offers with the video recording displaying that, in November of final yr, Mr O’Hanna wore and displayed the flag of Hezbollah … whereas saying ‘up Hamas, up Hezbollah’.”
In response, Brenda Campbell, the defendant’s lawyer, claimed the cost was introduced too late, because it got here greater than six months after the alleged crime was dedicated at a gig in Kentish City, north London.
Crowds of supporters collect as Liam O’Hanna of Irish group Kneecap departs Westminster Magistrates’ Court docket in London, England, on June 18, 2025 (Peter Nicholls/Getty Photos)
“If we’re proper in relation to that, then this courtroom has no jurisdiction and there ends the case,” Campbell mentioned.
Choose Paul Goldspring mentioned an additional listening to can be held on August 20 to find out whether or not the defence was appropriate on this evaluation.
Earlier than O’Hanna’s look in courtroom on Wednesday, Kneecap took to X to notice that dozens of Palestinians had been killed by Israeli troopers on Tuesday in Gaza whereas ready for help supply vans.
“In the meantime tomorrow they’ll strive label Mo Chara a terrorist,” Kneecap added.
Exterior the London courtroom on Wednesday, an Irish activist who gave his title as Patrick mentioned the cost in opposition to O’Hanna was “nonsense”.
“This case has all of the hallmarks of a political present trial,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
Sarah Cotte, 21, mentioned she believed the group was being “focused as a result of they’ve been uncompromising and unbowed of their expression of solidarity with the Palestinian battle and their solidarity with the Irish individuals”.
The band shot to worldwide prominence final yr after a semi-fictional movie about them acquired a number of awards, together with one on the Sundance Movie Pageant.
The Irish trio have been supported by outstanding British musicians similar to Paul Weller and Brian Eno, who’ve decried what they name the “concerted try to censor and de-platform Kneecap”.
The cost in opposition to O’Hanna will not be the one controversy confronted by the group. Kneecap apologised this yr when a video from 2023 surfaced, which appeared to indicate one singer calling for the loss of life of British Conservative Occasion politicians.
