London’s Metropolitan Police arrested an Iranian activist again on Wednesday for carrying a sign saying that Hamas are “terrorists”, despite even the British government branding the radical Islamist Palestinian group a terror group.
Niyak Ghorbani, a 38-year-old man from Iran, has come to national attention for holding a sign reading “Hamas Is Terrorist” at pro-Palestinian rallies in London over the past months. For merely holding up a sign factually stating the legal position of the British and American governments, Ghorbani has been arrested multiple times at protests and has even faced assault by anti-Israel activists.
The Iranian activist was arrested again on Wednesday outside Parliament during a pro-Palestinian rally, with footage posted on social media appearing to show officers question him about his sign and threaten him with arrest if he approached the pro-Palestinian activists.
In a statement following the arrest, the Met said: “Officers arrested a man for a suspected public order offence in relation to a sign he was carrying.
“It was quickly established that the man should not have been arrested and the wording on the banner did not constitute an offence. He was de-arrested a short time later.”
Commenting on his latest arrest, Ghorbani said: “I fought for the people of UK, for the people of Israel, for the honorable and brave people of Iran, and to show the truth, and ultimately for my dignity, to prove to you what situation you are in, and if you don’t wake up, you will Iran experience 1979 in UK.
“The people of Iran and Israel will soon destroy the Islamic Republic and Hamas. What will the future hold for the people of UK?”
During a previous arrest in March, the Metropolitan Police claimed that Ghorbani was not arrested for his supposedly controversial sign, but rather for assault following an altercation. The Met said that after reviewing the footage and finding that he was not at fault, Ghorbani was later “de-arrested”.
The latest incident came just days after a judge overruled an order from the London police force banning the Iranian dissident from getting anywhere near protests in London involving Israel or Gaza. The bail conditions were imposed by the Met after Ghorbani was arrested for a third time earlier this month.
However, Deputy District Judge Lisa Towell said per the Telegraph that the bail conditions imposed by the police banning him from attending demonstrations was not “necessary or proportionate” under the circumstances.
Since the October 7th Hamas terror attacks on Israel that left around 1,200 people dead and hundreds more taken hostage — many of whom remain in captivity to this day — anti-Israel demonstrations have become a fixture of the London cityscape. The Met Police have faced criticism for allegedly taking a soft approach to anti-Israel and antisemitism in the British capital. For instance, police previously excused protester who called for a “jihad”, saying that the word “has a number of meanings“.
Responding to Ghorbani’s latest arrest on Wednesday, former Immigration Minister Rorbert Jenrick wrote: “How can this keep happening? This man has been wrongly arrested multiple times simply for holding a sign saying ‘Hamas are terrorists’. Sir Mark Rowley needs to account for this unacceptable behaviour. Two tier policing must end.”