UK court rejects bid to reinstate ‘terrorism’ charge against Kneecap rapper

Irish rapper Liam O’Hanna welcomes ruling in case he says was ‘never about any threat to the public, never about terrorism’.Published On 11 Mar 2026British prosecutors have lost an appeal seeking to reinstate a “terrorism” charge against a member of Irish rap group Kneecap accused of waving a Hezbollah flag during a gig in London.London’s High Court on Wednesday rejected prosecutors’ attempts to challenge a lower court’s decision to throw out the case against Liam O’Hanna in September due to a technical error.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3UK prosecutors seek to reinstate ‘terrorism’ charge against Kneecap rapperlist 2 of 3Kneecap’s pro-Palestine supporters protest court appeallist 3 of 3UK police drop probe into Bob Vylan’s chants about Israeli militaryend of listThe decision means the case will not proceed. In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service said the High Court had “clarified how the law applies” to such cases and that it accepted “the judgement and will update our processes accordingly”.O’Hanna – also known as Liam Og O hAnnaid (his name in Gaeilge, the Irish language) and by the stage name Mo Chara (“My Friend”) – was charged in May of last year with displaying a Hezbollah flag during a November 2024 concert in London, in violation of the United Kingdom’s 2000 Terrorism Act.Kneecap’s members – who rap in Gaeilge and English and have been outspoken in their condemnation of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – have called the attempted prosecution a “British state witch-hunt”.Liam O’Hanna (Liam Og O hAnnaid) welcomed the ruling during a news conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland [Charles McQuillan/Getty Images]O’Hanna welcomed the ruling on Wednesday, saying during a news conference in Belfast that the case was “never about me, never about any threat to the public and never about terrorism”.“It was always about Palestine, about what happens if you dare to speak up, about what happens if you can reach large groups of people and expose their hypocrisy, about the lengths Britain will go to cover up Israeli and US war crimes,” he said.