Woman acquitted over ‘coconut’ protest placard

Marieha Hussain found not guilty of racially aggravated public order offence

A district judge has found teacher Marieha Hussain not guilty of committing a ‘racially aggravated public order offence’ after she held up a sign showing Tory pro-Israel politicians Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts during an anti-genocide march in central London. Hussain charged after being photographed with the placard in November.

Hussain told the court today that the sign was “not meant to be offensive” but was instead an example of political commentary and satire:

There was no hate speech. It was a satirical placard. It was funny. It was comic. There were no words on it in reference to ‘speech’. I did not alter the images of the Home Secretary and Prime Minister. [Calling it] hate-speech is far-fetched in my opinion.

Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan claimed that the sign was a ‘well-known racial slur’ that meant Sunak and Braverman are ‘race traitors’. District judge Vanessa Lloyd dismissed his claim, saying that the sign was:

part of the genre of political satire. As such, the prosecution have not proved to the criminal standard that it was abusive. The prosecution has also not proved to the criminal standard that you were aware that your placard may be abusive.

Sunak and Braverman, of course, can easily be argued to have betrayed huge numbers of people irrespective of skin colour – and particularly, through Britain’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes, the two million Palestinians suffering genocide and countless atrocities at the hands and bombs of the Israeli military that has already murdered as many as 200,000 civilians and maimed many more.

The state’s attempt to suppress free speech is part of a wide assault, escalating under Keir Starmer, on freedoms of speech and association, which have included the abuse of anti-terror laws to arrest and prosecute journalists and activists.

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